Ethan

And they have been playing Panther hockey by the analytics all year.

But the goaltending has tightened up a little bit.

The defending has tightened up a little bit.

And they just look more like the Panthers.

They're controlling the game in the offensive zone more.

And look, they're...

The biggest part is they're putting results together.

They're 6-3-1 in their last 10.

And they're right there knocking on the door like the Lightning are 3-6-1 in their last 10 because of all their injuries.

So the Panthers are right there.

A win tonight basically puts them back in the playoff position.

And all they have to do, we've said it all year long, is just be in striking distance by the time the Olympic break comes around.

And they're in striking distance at Christmas.

You mentioned Lusserainen coming back.

It's crazy how much better the lineup looked with just one guy returning to the lineup.

It made everybody slot back into their proper slots so much easier.

Now Matthew Kachuk could be back.

Eventually it'll be Gajevic and Nosek and Schwinn, Kulikov.

Everything is slowly working back to looking like the roster that we saw in the Stanley Cup final last year.

And then obviously the big one will become playoff time, whether they can get the captain back or not.