Existence is pain for the Florida Panthers.

While they aren’t the worst team in NHL history, having actually made the Stanley Cup Finals unlike five other franchises, they are arguably the most disappointing. Across 29 years, they have known nothing but pain and suffering. No matter how often they try to give their starving fans something to celebrate, they come up empty-handed.

All one has to do is look at their history to witness the pain.

The Panthers are the child of Wayne Huizenga, the notorious huckster who drove the Florida Marlins into ruin after he got bored with baseball. Unlike his other ventures, Huizenga’s hockey team found immediate success. Behind a strong core of John Vanbiesbrouck, Rob Niedermayer, and Scott Mellanby, they made history by advancing to the Finals in just their third year of play. Despite being founded by a group of men that admitted to knowing nothing about hockey, the Panthers had beaten the odds and forced themselves into the national hockey spotlight.

Then it all went wrong.

The 1996 Stanley Cup Finals weren’t even close. Colorado thrashed the Panthers in a four-game sweep. The plucky young underdogs were taken behind the woodshed by an Avalanche team that would be a terror for the rest of the NHL for nearly a decade.

The Panthers tried to regroup. They had retained their core and added excellent dept with the “Russian Rocket” Pavel Bure.

Wayne Gretsky and the Rangers didn’t care. They crushed Florida in the 1997 playoffs. The nightmare had just begun.

A decade of torment followed. Huizenga may have sold the team by then, but his mismanagement followed the new owners. The Panthers botched drafts, traded away franchise cornerstones, and failed to make the postseason for an entire decade. In 2006, they inexplicably sent Roberto Luongo to the Canucks for table scraps. It’s a trade widely considered one of the worst in the history of professional sports. By the time they got him back in 2013, his prime had already passed.

The long drought came to an end in 2011 when the Panthers won their first division title after nearly 20 years of existence. Their triumphant return to the postseason ended in a nightmarish game seven against New Jersey, where the Panthers watched in terror as Adam Henrique scored in double overtime to send them packing.

In 2016, they were the number one seed in the Atlantic Divison. The ageless Jaromir Jagr was leading a team that could smell a first-round victory. John Tavares and the Islanders said otherwise.

2022 was supposed to be the year that it all ended. They had assembled a true super team. A roster rich with talent, including Huberdeau, Barkov, Ekblad, late addition Claude Giroux, and even Jumbo Joe Thornton. They won more games and scored more points than any Panthers team before them. They finally crawled out of the first round after over 20 years and stared down the defending champion Lightning with all the confidence one could muster.

Then, they were swept. Tampa didn’t even give them a chance. The best team in the Eastern Conference scored a measly three goals against the Lightning and were held to just one power-play goal. Across 33 chances the entire postseason, they only scored the one power-play goal.

This is not random. This is not circumstance. This is malicious intent. This is the hockey gods telling Florida that success is not meant for them.

• Isaac Donsky - The Sportsgasm Podcast - Olde City Sports Network

Photo cred: Danis Sosa, Lemon City Live

Photo cred: NHL.com