Yes, the Florida Panthers clinched a playoff spot on Thursday. They were not in the mood to pat themselves on the back.
After all, it took a decisive Carolina Hurricanes win over the Detroit Red Wings to make it happen after the Panthers lost in regulation both times they had a chance to clinch a spot on their own with a win.
Coach Paul Maurice was not in a congratulatory mood when he stepped into his postgame media scrum following his team’s 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders.
“I appreciate the question, but I’m just a grumpy old man, so I’ll answer them all tomorrow,” he said when asked about his team being seconds away from clinching a playoff spot at the time with Carolina holding a 4-0 lead over Detroit.
“I don’t feel like talking about good things right now. Write whatever you want, today is free quote (expletive) day. Take whatever you think I might say and use it.”
Maurice has good reason to be a little angry right now.
His team has now lost six of its past seven and there has been at least one common theme of late.
In their past three losses, the Panthers held multiple leads and could not hold onto them.
“I think we’re playing hard,” captain Sasha Barkov said. “But I think our whole thing is that we need to play hard all the time and every shift. Sometimes, mistakes happen by playing hard and I don’t think anyone is doing the wrong thing.
“We’re just playing hard and mistakes are coming, so we’re just going to learn from that and we’ll watch some video tomorrow and we’ll be better.”
On Thursday, those mistakes came in the form of losing battles and momentum-killing penalties.
After Vladimir Tarasenko gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead early in the first, Ryan Pulock was left uncovered in the face-off circle and picked a corner to tie the game with 6:40 to go in the period.
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