Panthers focused on getting healthy for chance at Cup repeat, not standings

DETROIT -- When the Florida Panthers took the ice Sunday, they did not look like the team that won the Stanley Cup last season.

No Aleksander Barkov. No Sam Bennett. No Aaron Ekblad. No Gustav Forsling, Dmitry Kulikov, Sam Reinhart or Matthew Tkachuk.

Sergei Bobrovsky wasn't in goal, either, because the Panthers were playing their second game in two days.

"I almost wish some of those guys were in the lineup, because you look over in warmup, and you go, 'Well, where is everybody?'" Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. "I don't want to disrespect or anything, but you let your guard down a little bit."

The Panthers lost 2-1 at Little Caesars Arena, falling to 0-4-1 in their past five games. It remains to be seen who will be in the lineup in a key Atlantic Division game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, TSN4).

But don't let your guard down. The Panthers have clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they care less about where they finish in the standings than they do about getting healthy and playing the right way.

With a full lineup, they will have a chance to repeat.

"You always want every advantage that you can possibly get -- home ice and all that," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "But we've got to heal some of these guys, and we've got to give ourselves a chance to be physically right when it starts."

Ekblad, one of Florida's top defensemen, is serving a 20-game suspension for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. He will be eligible to return for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round.

Tkachuk, an emotional leader and star forward, has missed the past 20 games with a lower-body injury. He is expected to return for the first game of the playoffs.

The others are nursing relatively minor ailments. Kulikov, a defenseman who played all 24 of Florida's playoff games last season, has missed the past nine. Barkov, the captain and No. 1 center, has missed three. Bennett and Reinhart, key forwards, each has missed one game. So has Forsling, a defenseman who led Florida in average ice time (23:25) during the playoffs last season.

Maurice said Bennett probably won't play against Toronto on Tuesday. Barkov and Reinhart might. Forsling and Kulikov could return later in the week. The Panthers host the Red Wings on Thursday and the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

"We're not really resting guys," Maurice said. "We're just healing them, so if anybody we think we can make major improvements on anything that they're dealing with, we'll pull them and keep them out."

Don't forget that the Panthers acquired defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks on March 1 and forward Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins just before the NHL Trade Deadline on March 7, adding more depth and star power. After six straight wins, they were first in the Atlantic Division on March 8, four points ahead of the Maple Leafs and five in front of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Yes, they've gone 4-8-1 since and slipped to third in the Atlantic, six points behind the Maple Leafs and four behind the Lightning. Suddenly, they're in danger of dropping into the first wild card in the East, only two points ahead of the Ottawa Senators. But from their perspective, who cares who they play in the first round, and from an opponents' perspective, who wants to play them if they're at full strength?

"I wouldn't say it matters where we end up," Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich said. "You've got to beat everybody if you want to win it all. I think [the focus is on] just not opening up our game, staying tight, working on our forecheck, because that's what works in the playoffs."

The Panthers have scored two goals or fewer in six straight games, but they haven't given up too much lately, either.

They lost 3-2 at the Montreal Canadiens on April 1, when they allowed the tying goal with nine seconds left in the third period and the winner 29 seconds into overtime, which Maurice brushed off as something "that'll never happen again." They lost 3-2 at Toronto on Wednesday and 3-0 at Ottawa on Saturday despite outshooting the Maple Leafs 31-26 and the Senators 39-22. They outshot the Red Wings 33-24 on Sunday.

"It's all structural for us," Maurice said. "We're not scoring goals? I don't care. We want to be in tight games. … If we can maintain our structure right now, then we'll look at this as being a really good thing for us, because that's all we're talking about is the hard parts of our defensive structure, and it's been good to the point that we can survive in a game."

When Barkov, Bennett, Ekblad, Forsling, Kulikov, Reinhart and Tkachuk come back, the other team will have to survive.