The Florida Panthers, who have won the past two Stanley Cup titles, never thought they’d be in their current predicament.
But largely due to a multitude of injuries, the Panthers (35-32-3, 73 points) are on the brink of playoff elimination with a dozen games remaining in the regular season. They are 12 points behind the Ottawa Senators in the chase for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Even so, the Panthers — who will host the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in Sunrise, Fla. — surely are happy to have Paul Maurice as their coach.
Maurice, who on Tuesday became just the second man in history to work 2,000 games as an NHL head coach, said he has no plans to slow down. (Scotty Bowman coached 2,141 games from 1967 to 2002.)
“I don’t feel like 2,000 games was the end for me,” said Maurice, 59. “I haven’t been hanging out waiting for a (milestone).
“Look, (the Panthers are) in a tough spot. We all understand that. But we like this group. We like what we’re building. And I love living in Florida. I love coming to the rink, and I love (our players).”
With Maurice presumably secure in his post, the Panthers will try to grind out wins despite having few healthy top-line forwards. The players on that list are Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe.
Bennett has 25 goals, Verhaeghe has 21 and Tkachuk just nine, but that’s only because he’s been injured most of the season, playing only 23 games.
The Panthers’ forwards who are out include Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Brad Marchand and Sam Reinhart.
Given those injuries, the Panthers need scoring from unexpected sources, which is what happened Tuesday in a 5-4 shootout win over the visiting Seattle Kraken. In that game, Florida’s Noah Gregor, who was recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League earlier in the day, posted one goal and one assist.
“I stuck to the things I do well,” said the speedy Gregor, whose goal was his first in the NHL in nearly two years. “I thought I skated well.”
Meanwhile, the Wild (40-20-12, 92 points) are coming off a 6-3 loss road loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. Minnesota blew a 3-1 lead.
On the positive side for the Wild, they went 2-for-4 on the power play. On the negative side, Minnesota allowed Tampa Bay to go 3-for-4 on its power play.
“Both (power-play) units scored big goals,” Minnesota’s Nick Foligno said. “It was fun to see how dangerous and lethal (the power-play units) can be. At this time of the year, you need your special teams to be clicking.”
Minnesota has no issues scoring. Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy lead the Wild in goals with 38 each. Vladimir Tarasenko (21) is the team’s other 20-plus goal scorer.
Quinn Hughes tops the squad in assists with 43. Kaprisov is one behind.
The Wild also boast two high-scoring defensemen: Brock Faber (48 points) and Hughes (47). Hughes also leads the Wild with 20 power-play assists.
At goalie, Minnesota relies on Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt, with the latter likely to start against the Panthers.
Wallstedt, Minnesota’s first-round draft pick in 2021, is just 23 and had appeared in just five games in his first two NHL seasons. He is 14-8-6 with a 2.75 goals-aganst average and a .911 save percentage for the season.
His fellow Swede, Gustavsson (26-12-6, 2.51 GAA, .910 save percentage), has won 57 games over the past two seasons. He was in goal the only time these teams have faced each other in 2025-26, a 4-3 overtime win by visiting Florida on Jan. 24. Marchand had the winning goal in OT.
The Thursday game will be the final meeting between the two teams this season.
