The Florida Panthers are chasing history this season, aiming for a third straight Stanley Cup title-a feat that would put them in rarefied air. But right now, they’re not looking like a team ready to hoist the Cup again. Monday night’s 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres marked their fourth straight defeat, and frustration is starting to boil over.
After the game, Matthew Tkachuk didn’t sugarcoat it. The Panthers’ star forward offered a brutally honest assessment of where his team stands compared to their opponent.
“They're way more skilled than us, that team,” Tkachuk said of the Sabres. “From an individual standpoint, skill, they have us by a lot.”
That’s not the kind of quote you often hear from a player on a championship-caliber team. But it speaks volumes about the current state of the Panthers, who now sit at 28-24-3 on the season and have dropped six of their last 10 games. The swagger that helped carry them through back-to-back Cup runs just hasn’t been there lately.
Tkachuk, who knows what it takes to win deep into June, acknowledged that Florida’s recent play has strayed from the gritty, disciplined identity that’s been their calling card.
“We are in trouble right now,” he admitted. “We cannot try to outskill teams, and I don’t think that’s what we were trying to do tonight.
But at some points in the game we are doing that, playing into their hands. We just have to get back to the basics, try to win a 1-0, 2-1 game here.
Just try to go from there. We’re in one right now.
If we don’t simplify things, this year is going to get away from us.”
That’s the kind of self-awareness that can spark a turnaround-but only if it’s followed by action.
To make matters worse, the Panthers are limping through a season riddled with injuries. Monday night was no exception, as forward Sam Bennett exited after the first period with an upper-body injury. It’s the latest blow in a season where seemingly every game brings a new setback.
“It seems like someone is getting injured every night,” said Tkachuk, who knows the feeling all too well after missing a chunk of the season himself while recovering from surgery.
Despite the adversity, head coach Paul Maurice isn’t questioning his team’s effort. He pointed to the shot totals-just 20 allowed-as a sign that the group is still grinding, even if the results aren’t there right now.
“They are grinding, battling as hard as they can,” Maurice said. “With the number [of shots] we had, I have no complaint with what we did.
You can always look at decisions we made with the puck, maybe we could have done something better with it. But for what we had … I have no complaint with how hard they are trying.”
Effort isn’t the issue. Execution is.
The Panthers don’t need to reinvent themselves-they just need to rediscover the formula that got them here: tight-checking defense, smart puck management, and timely scoring. Right now, they’re trying to do too much, and it’s costing them against younger, faster teams like Buffalo.
Next up? A tough test against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
It’s the kind of game that could either snap them out of this funk-or deepen it. With the season starting to slip, the Panthers don’t have time to wait for things to turn around.
“Honestly, They’re way more skilled than us” - Matthew Tkachuk on the Buffalo Sabres pic.twitter.com/LDWfqlgQDV
— sabresource (@sabresource1) February 3, 2026
They’ve got to make it happen, and fast.