With 2 games left, here are the scenarios that get Florida into the playoffs:

• Panthers W/W and Rangers L/L, L/OTL, or OTL/OTL
• Panthers W/W and Canadiens L/L
• Panthers W/OTL and Rangers L/L

Panthers get eliminated Thursday with a loss.  The Canadiens and Rangers can clinch playoff spots with wins. 

As W4E said in the Florida/Philadelphia post-game, the Cats played well while the Flyers played better.  Lets hope the Flyers keep that going and beat the Rangers in the final two.

 www.sportsclubstats.com has the Panthers sitting at a15% of making playoffs.

The two 8th place teams are deadlocked with three games remaining on each clubs schedules.  If the teams remain tied, the Rangers would claim the first tiebreaker because they have one more victory than the Panthers do.  If somehow the Rangers get two overtime losses in these final three games so that the teams are also tied in victories, then the next tiebreaker is head to head games where the Panthers lead 3 games to 1.

For all intensive purposes, the Panthers need to obtain 1 more point than the Rangers to avoid the tiebreaker.  Here is a look at each team’s remaining schedule.

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On Friday, February 13, the panthers are a team on top of the world.  They are just coming off a Tuesday matchup in which they staged a three goal comeback to pick up two points in an overtime victory over the Maple Leafs.  They are coming off a 5-0 Thursday domination of the Hurricanes in Raleigh, a place Carolina had won 15 of the previous 16 matchups, and a game in which had the Panthers lost, they’d be currently tied for 9th in the playoff chase.  Needless to say, things were looking fantastic for the Panthers as they were pushing towards a playoff berth that has eluded them for much time.  But even at 11-3-3 in 2009, they were facing a daunting task in their next nine games.

                To me, facing the Devils twice, Capitals twice, Rangers twice, Bruins twice, and the Blackhawks once in a nine game period was potentially catastrophic even to the high flying Panthers.  At that time, if I was a betting man (which I am) and I was an overly optimistic Panther fan (which I also am), I would have slotted the Panthers for 5 wins in those 9 games (NY, Wash, Chi, @NY, @NJ).  Turns out I only picked two of the wins right, but I did get the magic number of 5 correct. 

Now, knowing that I am an overly optimistic Panther fan allows me to look back on that and be pretty pumped that they actually took away 5 wins of 9 against some of the best teams in the league.  There are some seriously outstanding things to take away from that 9 game set.

-Shutout the road hungry (19-9-2) New Jersey Devils 4-0

-Shutout Eastern Conference Bulldog, the Bruins 2-0

-Beat fellow playoff hunt Rangers 2 of 2 games

-Gave the Washington Capitals their worst home loss ever under coach Bruce Boudreau.

There of course were some lows in that the Panthers lost 4-0 to Chicago at home, lost to Boston 6-1 on the road and lost to New Jersey 7-2 on the road.  However, I think we even learned more about these Panthers from these losses than we did from the win.  After each of those three tough losses, they did not let their heads hang and they did not sit and sulk about the losses.  They came to play and the battled hard in their following games, winning all three post-humiliation games.  On February 13th, I was thinking if the Panthers made it through the nine-game stretch and won about half of them (4 or 5) and they didn’t drop themselves out of playoff contention, they would be in the driver’s seat the rest of the season.  They control their destiny, and they can compete with the best.

I am very comfortable that the Panthers having alternated wins and losses in their last nine games, especially when taking a look at how they lost and who they had to compete against in their victories.  What is also important is they begun this stretch of alternating wins and losses with consecutive wins… now they have a chance to end it with consecutive wins.   Go Panthers