What’s next for the Florida Panthers? Start a new winning streak

The Florida Panthers will end October atop the NHL standings by taking 17 of the available 18 points through their first nine games. The Panthers went on an eight-game winning streak to start their season — a remarkable way to kick things off.

Especially for a Florida team not exactly known for its hot starts.

”It’s all about getting off to a good start,’’ Sasha Barkov said. “We need a good start because by the end, everyone is going to be playing good.

“Good teams play really good at the start, too. We play hard right from the start, we had a good training camp and we’re going to keep building from this. It’s still early, but we want to keep building, keep getting better.”

The Panthers’ starting off with eight consecutive wins has only been done 10 times in history. And Florida was a shootout goal or two away from going 9-0.

The difference in Florida being 9-0 and 8-0-1 was their inability to win the “skills competition” which determines a game’s winner if it is tied after a five-minute overtime.