Panthers still in playoffff race despite poor start

NEW YORK — The Florida Panthers hit the half way mark of their season Saturday night.

They landed there with a thud.

Florida’s 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins is not how the Panthers want to play in the second half of a season they hope is a lot more uplifting than the fifirst.

Through the fifirst 41 games, the Panthers have done little to offffffffffffer fans hope they will make their fifirst trip to the postseason in consecutive years since 1996 and ’97.

Yet, the Panthers came into Sunday’s games tangled up in the gridlock of the Atlantic Division just t wo points back of Ottawa for third place — and a playoffff s p o t . B o s t o n , O t t a w a , Toronto, Tampa Bay and Florida are within four points of each other with a lot of games left on the schedule.

That didn’t seem to do much to assuage concern in the Florida locker room following Saturday’s loss, with Jonathan Marchessault and Aaron Ekblad sharing their disappointment with the way things have transpired so far in this disappointing season.

“I f we d o n’ t t u r n t h i s around ... it’s going to get harder and harder and we keep putting ourselves in this position,” said Marchessault, who leads the Panthers with 12 goals this season.

“I don’t think we have a three-game winning streak; it’s hard to be a good team when you c an’t get on a streak. Everything is close, but in big games, we don’t wi n t he m. We d o n’t put ourselves in position to get breaks. We’re still not out, but we have to start turning the boat around.”

Added Ekblad: “We have to rise to the occasion.”

Tom Rowe, the team’s general manager who became head coach when the popu l a r G e r a rd Gal l a nt was c anned 22 games in, has tried to keep a positive spin on things most nights, hoping his team plays more like it did Friday against Nashville and a lot less like it did Wednesday against Winnipeg or Saturday against the Bruins. Florida’s loss Saturday was its fourth to Boston this season.

“I thought we battled hard the whole game. It’s the second game of a back-to-back, so it’s obviously a little tiring,” goalie James Reimer said. “When you get behind the 8-ball, it just makes it even harder on yourself. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the two points, but there’s still a lot of season left to play. We’ll keep playing more, we’ll keep regrouping and we’ll be all right.”

T h e P a n t h e r s a r e a b a n ge d - u p b u n c h t h e s e days with their games lost to injury hitting 116 on Saturday as Roberto Luongo sat out with Reimer getting another start in goal.

Although injuries are, as players and coaches love to point out, a “part of the game,” the Panthers have failed to play consistently through the fifirst few months of the season and the players missing from the lineup is a big reason.

Florida is missing two of its top centers in Sasha Barkov and Nick Bjugstad along with top-winger Jonathan Huberdeau.

Seth Griffith, who was picked up offff waivers from Toronto only to end up on the top line in Florida, is out with a concussion.

Greg McKegg left Saturday’s game with what is being called an upper-body injury.

“We’ve go t a n awf u l ly l arge l i s t of i nj ured guys out,” Rowe said. “We ask our guys to give it everything they can, and they have and they’ll continue to do that.”