Tough Season Paying Off for Barkov and the Florida Panthers

If there is one player who has personified the ups and downs of this Florida Panthers season, it is captain Sasha Barkov.

Barkov has has numerous injuries this season and even had a bout with pneumonia which knocked him out of seven games back before the New Year.

Yet with the season on the line, the Panthers — and Barkov — have been coming through.

Florida has two games left in their regular season and is now in control of their own postseason destiny.

If the Panthers win these last two games, they will be the top wild card in the Eastern Conference and open the postseason with either the Carolina Hurricanes or New Jersey Devils.

It has been a year of struggles and triumph for the Panthers but the book has not yet been written on this season.

Barkov, for one, wants to keep this thing going.

“We have a good thing going on here,” Barkov told FHN. “We love playing for each other, love working hard every day. That is what we have been doing. We’re obviously getting wins and gaining confidence. We know what we have to do, but we’re taking it one day at a time. You cannot think too much ahead. But everyone in this room believes in what we’re trying to create. We’re excited about that.”