Nothing fancy but Panthers ease way to another win against Columbus

Before Monday night’s game between the Panthers and his Columbus Blue Jackets, defenseman Seth Jones said no matter how bad things were going, they were not going to stop giving their complete effort.

If they did not already know, Jones and his teammates are finding out sometimes effort has nothing to do with the end result.

Columbus played better than the Panthers Monday, at least early on, yet talent won out on this night.

The Panthers have a lot more than the depleted Blue Jackets and it showed in Florida’s 4-2 win at BB&T Center.

Florida did not do anything fancy but simply had too much for a team struggling as Columbus is right now.

It was plenty enough.

And, with Tampa Bay beating Carolina in OT, Florida and the Hurricanes are tied atop the Central Division with 62 points each.

”Every game from here on out has a playoff mentality and we all know that,” said Anthony Duclair, who had two assists on Monday.

“For us, it doesn’t matter who we play we just want to keep going.”