from Adam Vingan at Sportsnet,

Last season, the Florida Panthers bulldozed through their competition, winning a franchise-record 58 games and the Presidents’ Trophy.

That is far from the case this season. After losing in overtime to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday, the 21-20-5 Panthers are on pace for 84 points and in danger of becoming the first reigning Presidents’ Trophy winner to miss the playoffs since the 2014-15 Boston Bruins.

The loss to the Maple Leafs was the Panthers’ fifth failed attempt at extending a winning streak to three games. They are one of three teams without a three-game winning streak this season, along with the terrible Anaheim Ducks and Columbus Blue Jackets. That is not company you want to keep.

Why Panthers' Maurice took exception to officiating in loss to Maple LeafsPlay VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time 0:00/Duration 2:23Loaded: 6.88% Fullscreen

The Panthers made big changes following their second-round loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, most notably trading Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to the Calgary Flames for Matthew Tkachuk. They also chose not to bring back Jack Adams Award finalist Andrew Brunette as coach and hired Paul Maurice, who resigned from the Winnipeg Jets in December 2021.

Tkachuk has lived up to his superstar billing with 56 points in 43 games — a 103-point pace. But that production has not helped a middle-of-the-pack offence that is scoring nearly one fewer goal per game than it did last season. (Aleksander Barkov, a high-level play-driver, missing 10 games cannot be overlooked, either.)

“Our analytics are way better than our record,” Maurice told reporters Tuesday. “I think in Winnipeg, my analytics were way worse than the record, so I can’t use that as an argument here. I was always saying, ‘Analytics don’t matter.’ Now I’m saying, ‘Hey, look at the analytics!’”

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