Will The Two-Time Defending Stanley Cup Champs Miss The Playoffs Entirely?

The Florida Panthers have been on one of the most historic runs in recent memory in the NHL.

Fresh off of three Eastern Conference championships and back-to-back Stanley Cups, it was the prevailing thought among most hockey fans that the good times would continue to roll in Sunrise, especially after the Cats locked up their "Big Three" pending free agents in Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad.

READ: President Trump Applauds Florida Panthers For Keeping Stanley Cup Out Of Canada

But since the start of the season, it hasn't exactly been the walk in the park many predicted for the Panthers.

As of today, Florida sits second-to-last in an uber-competitive Atlantic Division, and as the NHL calendar starts to rapidly shrink, the Panthers may end up on the outside looking in at Lord Stanley's postseason tournament.

Things seem to have reached an all-time low after last night's putrid performance in Raliegh, a 9-1 drubbing at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes, a franchise the Cats have owned for the past three years.

Making it to the playoffs while being at the bottom of the division after January 1 seems like a tall task, but for what it's worth, the MoneyPuck playoff predictor has the Panthers at nearly 49 percent odds to make the playoffs this season, even after last night's embarrassment in North Carolina.

The truth of the matter is that the Panthers need to get healthy, and fast.

We all know about captain Aleksander Barkov's injury to start the season, as well as Matthew Tkachuk's slow recovery from offseason surgery.

But the Cats are also without the aforementioned Brad Marchand and key defenders Tomas Nosek and Dmitry Kulikov.

That lack of depth is not only hamstringing the Panthers right now, but, should they make it to the postseason, will make it practically impossible to sustain any semblance of a Cup run.

Marchand and Tkachuk should be back soon, and the Olympic break should provide some much-needed rest for a team that has played hockey well into June for three straight years.

I posed the question of whether the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champs would miss the playoffs entirely this year, and while I would never count them out, they need to turn things around in a hurry.

Because if they don't, those talks of a dynasty brewing in South Florida may have to be put on hold for the foreseeable future.