But even though as of this writing they sit three points behind New Jersey with two games in hand for the second wild card spot, there is still every chance that this run ends nowhere but ninth place in the East. In case that does happen, what does it mean for this season, and what does it say about the Panthers going forward?
What it will say is that in order to make the postseason, you can’t start a season 7-11-2, which is how the Panthers stumbled out of the blocks in October to mid-November. Even after a fairly decent December (mostly due to a five game winning streak to end the month), they were 19-22-6 at the All-Star break.