How the Panthers went from Cup contenders to pretenders so quickly

The 2021-22 regular campaign was magical for the Florida Panthers, who won their first-ever Presidents’ Trophy after finishing with a league-best 122 points. This season, however, the team has fallen from grace at a historic rate.

With the calendar freshly flipped to 2023, the team entered Tuesday at 16-18-4 with 36 points through 38 contests, good for 13th (!!) in the Eastern Conference. That puts them eight points shy of the final wild-card seed — currently owned by the Pittsburgh Penguins — and needing to leapfrog five franchises to surge back into contention.

The Panthers have dug themselves a pretty large hole through the first half of 2022-23, but with 44 games remaining, there’s still time to salvage this campaign. As of now, though, they’re trending toward being on the wrong side of history.

Since the Presidents’ Trophy was first awarded in 1986, only three winners have missed the playoffs the following season: the 1992-93 New York Rangers, the 2007-08 Buffalo Sabres and the 2014-15 Boston Bruins.

The Rangers went from the top of their class to 19th overall in just one season, earning only 79 points, which remains the worst year-to-year decline since ‘86. They did, however, regain form in a hurry, capturing both the Presidents’ Trophy and Stanley Cup in 1993–94.

Buffalo, meanwhile, dropped to 18th overall and racked up 90 points, finishing four back of the final playoff spot following their first-overall season. Boston came even closer during its post Presidents’ Trophy-winning campaign, ranking 17th overall and missing the postseason by just two points.

Barring a dramatic mid-season turnaround, the Panthers are on pace to topple the ‘93 Rangers in this regard, as they currently sit tied for 23rd in points and rank 25th in points percentage (.474) this season. That’s quite the downturn from where this club sat a year ago.

So what has…