Maybe the Florida Panthers knew something when they had their end of season festivities following Tuesday night’s win over the New York Rangers instead of Thursday’s home finale against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The playoff bound Leafs built a two-goal first period lead and never looked back en route to a 4-0 win over the Cats.

Goals from Leo Komarov and Clarke Macarthur put the Panthers behind the eight ball in the first. Two second-period Phil Kessel goals all but sealed the deal. Florida would put 34 shots on James Reimer and he stopped every single one for his fourth shutout of the season, robbing the home fans of cheering for one last goal until October.

The only thing to get the home fans out of their seat was this late second period dust up between Alex Petrovic and Nazem Kadri in which Kadri bit of a little more than he could chew:

The loss means the Panthers are guaranteed of picking in the top two of June’s entry draft which means Seth Jones or Nathan McKinnon will the newest Panther when training camp opens in early September. For the home fans, it was an all-too familiar way to close out the home season but they can take solace in the fact that this team will get instantly better with the return of healthy veterans and the young players will benefit from the experience the received this year, no matter the results.

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