Florida Panthers Get Back to Business. It Was Good

SUNRISE — In the scope of a long season, the Florida Panthers losing streak really will not matter.

When things are decided, the Panthers know they are going back to the playoffs.

They are too good, too experienced, to believe anything else.

Whatever happens during the regular season, however this thing goes down, their success will be determined in the postseason.

It will not be based on some random Monday in November.

Yet beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 on Wednesday night felt good.

After losing four straight and six of seven, pride sort of took over.

The Panthers were tired of losing.

Are these losses — the ones against the likes of the Devils, Capitals, Blackhawks, whomever — really going to mean anything down the road?

Probably not.

Regardless, the Panthers brought it on Wednesday.

The Panthers were the Panthers on Wednesday night and ground the red-hot Maple Leafs into the ice.

“We’ve been trying to find our identity,’’ Sasha Barkov said. “I think it all comes from hard work, being simple, being hard and physical. That’s our game.”

Yeah it is.

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