They were only the second team in the history of the league to get to 96 points yet miss the postseason.
As it has been well documented in this space, their horrific start to the season doomed them to missing the postseason no matter how well they played down the stretch. In 47 games before the All-Star break, they had 44 points.
In 35 games after that, they had 52. That kind of form might be good enough to win the President’s Trophy if extrapolated out to a full 82-game slate, and last year’s Panthers team was fatally flawed in multiple ways.