With few playoff spots remaining as the regular season winds down, this week's "On the Fly" roundtable focuses on teams outside the postseason picture that have a solid chance of recovering and making the dance next year.

Florida Panthers

Josh Gold-Smith: The Panthers had so many things go right for them last season and over the summer that it appeared they'd have no problem taking a step forward in 2016-17. That obviously didn't happen, as injuries to their top two scorers, their best defenseman, and their veteran starter in goal helped derail a club that enjoyed its best season in franchise history one year ago.

Still, there will be reasons for optimism in Sunrise as they look to start fresh next fall. Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, and Roberto Luongo likely won't all suffer significant injuries again, and if the aging Luongo does get hurt once more, James Reimer has proven to be a more than capable starter when he's not getting banged up himself.

Florida has its core locked up long term, and it remains a promising group that was in the playoff mix earlier this season before all of the injuries and a controversial coaching change.

Panthers management shouldn't overreact to this disappointing campaign. This club is talented enough to get right back in the postseason next spring.

Winnipeg Jets

Navin Vaswani: I say it every year around this time: Imagine Winnipeg had a goalie.

Poor play at the position has torpedoed yet another Jets season, and this one feels more painful because Mark Scheifele exploded, Patrik Laine scored all those goals, and Blake Wheeler was, well, Blake Wheeler.

The Jets are a damn talented squad, with five players hitting the 50-point mark on the season. If Bryan Little and Mathieu Perreault are healthy, they make it seven. Only problem is, none of those guys play goal.

Only the Avalanche have allowed more goals than the Jets this season, and at this point, Colorado's barely an NHL team. Allowing 3.15 goals a game, the Jets rank 28th in the league. Also 28th, their 76.7 percent penalty-killing rate. Simply not good enough.

Connor Hellebuyck has a .905 save percentage in 54 games. Awful. Michael Hutchinson's at .902 in 27 games. Horrific. Let's not even bother with Ondrej Pavelec.

Here's what the Jets have been dealing with in the crease since returning to Winnipeg.

*2016-17 stats don't include Thursday's action

This isn't hard to figure out: The one year the Jets had some NHL-caliber goaltending, they made the playoffs.

Ben Bishop and Ryan Miller are free agents this summer. Hell, even Jonathan Bernier looks like a great option at this point. The Jets will land one of the three in free agency to stop the insanity, and playoff hockey will return to Winnipeg in 2018.

Philadelphia Flyers

Sean O'Leary: It feels like an eternity ago that the Flyers were being mentioned in the same breath as their Metropolitan Division competitors, but that was the case after Philadelphia won 10 consecutive games in December.

Much has changed since - the Flyers have dropped off dramatically, holding onto slim postseason hopes as they sit four points back of a wild-card position.

While the second half of the season has been a huge disappointment in the City of Brotherly Love, the Flyers still own the tools to contend in the future. Captain Claude Giroux admitted offseason hip surgery has hurt his game, and Philly still boasts two of the most underrated producers in the NHL in Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds.

During Ron Hextall's tenure as general manager, the Flyers have drafted well - namely Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov, who have already emerged as key pieces on the roster. Bolstering the blue line and making an improvement in goal are necessities for Hextall in the offseason, but the Flyers could be closer to a return to the postseason than you may think.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Through the remainder of the regular season, we'll take a look at how the night's action impacts the playoff race, highlighting which teams' postseason odds went up or down significantly.

All the action comes from the East, where three playoff positions remain up for grabs, and six teams saw decent swings Thursday night.

Even a victory wasn't enough for the Tampa Bay Lightning to make up ground in the playoff chase, with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins - both ahead of Tampa Bay - picking up wins. The Lightning now sit three points out of the playoff picture, with just six games remaining.

Little changed in the opposite conference, where three playoff seeds also need to be locked down. The Los Angeles Kings, the lone outside team still in the mix, sit 10 points back of the next club, the Nashville Predators, who lost Thursday night:

To see percentages for the entire NHL, visit Sports Club Stats.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Patrik Elias is calling it a career.

The New Jersey Devils legend announced his retirement from the NHL on Friday.

"After 18 seasons, I am pleased to announce that I will be retiring from the National Hockey League, having played my last game with the New Jersey Devils," Elias said in a statement.

"For the past few months, I have weighed this decision both physically and mentally. I am happy to say this provides me and my family with closure."

The Devils also announced Friday that they will retire Elias' No. 26 next season. He'll be the fifth player in franchise history to earn that honor, joining Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and Ken Daneyko.

Elias goes out as the club's all-time leader in goals (408), assists (617), points (1,025), game-winning goals (80), and hat tricks (eight).

The 40-year-old was part of two Stanley Cup championship squads, in 2000 and 2003.

Elias also won three bronze medals representing the Czech Republic - two at the world championships and one at the Olympics in 2006.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

A playoff spot was only the beginning. The Edmonton Oilers want more. Home-ice advantage, in particular.

A 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday has the club within a point of Anaheim for first place in the Pacific Division, and Edmonton's feeling really good about its game right now.

Four wins a row, and eight wins in their last nine, in which they've outscored the opposition 37-17. Seven wins in a row at home, their last loss at Rogers Place coming March 12. A Pacific-best plus-30 goal differential. Yeah, things are good right now in Edmonton.

"We have to go through these teams in the playoffs and this is a big statement game for us," Cam Talbot said after the game. The goaltender was superb, again, stopping 38-of-40 shots.

Connor McDavid scored a brilliant shorthanded goal and added an assist, eclipsing the 90-point mark for the first time.

"We want to play these games going into the playoffs," the captain said. "We want to ramp up our game."

Guess who the Oilers play next? The Ducks, on Saturday, at home, with first place on the line.

You're not dreaming, Edmonton. Enjoy.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

All in all, Thursday was about as brutal a night as possible for the New York Islanders.

After the club fell behind 3-0 only eight minutes into the first period in Philadelphia, defenseman Travis Hamonic tried to get his teammates going by asking Dale Weise to drop the gloves. Weise obliged, the two players chucked knuckles, and they even gave each other respect at the end for a spirited bout.

Only problem: Hamonic appears to have hurt his left hand in the fight. He didn't play after the tilt, logging only 4:38 of ice time. He was spotted after the game, and it didn't look good.

The Islanders lost 6-3, and if Hamonic's done, an uphill climb for the Islanders to make the playoffs only gets, well, more uphill.

The 26-year-old has three goals and 14 points in 49 games, and went into action Thursday playing 20:47 a night.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Ottawa Senators aren't panicking - not yet - but they felt the need to talk some things through after another rough game Thursday.

With the opposition closing in for second place in the Atlantic Division, the club held a team meeting after being slapped around by the Minnesota Wild, according to Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch.

The Sens lost 5-1, and saw each playoff hopeful in the Atlantic win. The Canadiens clinched their playoff spot by beating Florida, the Lightning kept their hopes alive by taking down Detroit, the Bruins shut out Dallas, and the Maple Leafs secured a huge win on the road in Nashville.

Toronto, in fact, is now only two points back of the Senators, with both teams having played 76 games. Boston's three back, though Ottawa has a game in hand.

The end of Ottawa's schedule is far from kind, and the Senators have only a point to show through three games on a difficult five-game road trip. There are two more stops, in Winnipeg and Detroit - games against two non-playoff teams that Ottawa must take at least three points from. Four of Ottawa's remaining six games are away from home.

"They really took it to us," Dion Phaneuf said of Ottawa's effort Thursday against Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune's Michael Russo. "The score reflects really the whole game and if you look at how we got beat, they had more than us."

Ottawa finished with only 40 shot attempts and 19 shots on goal.

The Sens have been a strong club on the road this season, with 21 wins, but they're going to have to dig deep down the stretch, especially with a massive April 6 game looming against the Bruins in Boston.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Doug Weight's New York Islanders suffered a crushing defeat Thursday in Philadelphia, the result almost guaranteed only 10 minutes into the game.

It was 4-0 for the Philadelphia Flyers after 9:19 of action, and 5-0 after 20 minutes, the Isles eventually dropping a 6-3 decision. After the game, Weight wasn't pleased. In fact, he was flummoxed, because his team's first period didn't add up.

"What do you say? Nothing. It's just shit," Weight said, according to Newsday's Arthur Staple. "It's not like they make tic-tac-toe plays - they had four chances in the first and it's 5-0. Four! Do the math.

"We worked, but it doesn't really matter," he added. "A piss-poor first."

That's about as accurate an assessment gets.

The Islanders have lost three in a row and are six points back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with a game in hand. The math, though, that Weight referenced, isn't pretty.

New York will host the New Jersey Devils in Brooklyn on Friday. Lose that one, and it's done, no matter what the numbers say.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Have a night, Mark Scheifele.

The Winnipeg Jets superstar continued his breakout season Thursday in fine fashion, hitting the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career with an overtime winner upstairs past Jonathan Bernier.

Thursday also happened to be Scheifele's bobblehead night at the MTS Centre, and his finisher capped an impressive comeback. The Jets trailed the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 with under 10 minutes to play in the third period, with Dustin Byfuglien tying the game up with only 12 seconds to go.

Scheifele played a whopping 26:47, and is up to 78 points, with career-high totals across the board.

At 24, he's only getting started.

As for the Ducks, the loser point is a big one for them, as they'll remain in first place in an ultra-tight Pacific Division on Friday morning.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.