Five takeaways from the Florida Panthers’ 5-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night at the BB&T Center.
1: The Panthers are moving on up. They picked up two points on the New Jersey Devils, who lost on Thursday. The Panthers also stayed status quo with the victorious Columbus Blue Jackets. Florida trails the Devils by three points for the first Eastern Conference wild-card playoff berth and Columbus by two points for the second and final wild-card berth. But the Panthers have three games in hand when compared to both.
Were the Panthers to pass both of those teams, they would avoid a first-round matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are, by far, the best team in the conference.