The Florida Panthers, yes those Florida Panthers, are in first place in the NHL's Atlantic Division. We're not kidding!
With 44 points following their 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night, the Panthers have a one-point lead over the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens and a two-point advantage on the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators for the division lead. Florida started the evening in fourth place before leapfrogging those four clubs.
The Panthers, who have made the playoffs just four times in the franchise's 22 seasons, have not been in first place in their division at this point in the season since 2011, when they won the Southeast Division, which no longer exists and wasn't nearly as strong as the Atlantic is now.
Considering the fact that the Canadiens had a seven-point advantage on the rest of the division and a 16-point lead on the then sixth-place Panthers in particular just one month ago, this is a crazy rise for South Florida's hockey club. Aside from the Habs' stunning collapse over the last month, the Panthers have been surging with six straight victories and 12 wins over their last 15 games.
Since making the playoffs in 2011, the Panthers have finished no higher than fifth in their division to end a season. They could hold first place for only a day with how tight the Atlantic Division is, but heading into the 2016 portion of the season, Florida is in the hunt. And look at how they’re doing it:
Their leading scorer is 43-year-old Jaromir Jagr, who is mystifying the NHL with his impressive play and march up the NHL's all-time scoring list.
Some of their best players are 22 or younger. Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov connected twice on Barkov goals against the Blue Jackets and are now both over 20 points. The No. 2 defenseman is 19-year-old Aaron Ekblad, who already has nine goals this season to follow up his Calder Trophy campaign last year.
Roberto Luongo has been playing out of his mind this year, too. The 36-year-old netminder has a lot of gas left in the tank with a 15-11-3 record to go along with his .925 save percentage.
That doesn't even mention major contributors like Brian Campbell, Jussi Jokinen, Vincent Trocheck and Reilly Smith, among others.
Meanwhile, the team's highest-paid forward -- Dave Bolland at a $5.5 million cap hit -- was sent to the AHL on a conditioning assignment and has just five points in 25 NHL games this year. That's not usually a recipe for success, but the Panthers are winning anyway.
Most expected the Panthers to be better this year, but anticipating them to be among the top teams in a division that includes the Canadiens, Bruins, Red Wings and reigning Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning at this point in the season is beyond surprising.
The Panthers made very few moves in the summer and relied on improvement from their young players and bigger performances out of some key veterans like Jagr, Jokinen and Luongo. It's working so far.
It's hard to know just how long this will last, but they deserve to enjoy this accomplishment before getting back to work on staying in the race.
