By AMANDA TORRES

The Florida Panthers played against the Edmonton Oilers at the BB&T Center on Saturday afternoon. It seemed like the Panthers were going to win the game before the intermission, but they ended up losing to the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2.

Florida Panthers on their home ice on March 17 (Photo by Amanda Torres).

The Miami Herald said that despite losing this game, the Panthers are playing better this season, winning nine of the 11 home games they have played thus far.

Since Feb. 12, the Panthers have had a 3-2-1 record. The Miami Herald added that “two of the games the Panthers failed to win during that stretch were decided by just one goal.”

The Panthers have played 27 home games this season so far and have won 17. The next seven games the Panthers will play will be on the road. Being on the road could be a challenge for them, since the opposing teams are known to have road records that outshine those of the Panthers’.

According to the Herald, even though the opposing teams have better road records, their winning records show that five of next nine teams they will play against have had more overall losses this season than the Panthers have.

An interesting factor that the Herald included in their news story about the game were five bolded questions that answered some concerns that Panthers fans probably had in mind after yesterday’s game.

“Will the Panthers make the playoffs?” The Herald objectively answered this question based on statistics from Hockey-Reference.com. This website predicted that the Panthers probably won’t make it to the playoffs, but only by a couple of points. It will all depend on their upcoming road games.

“What the heck happened on Saturday against the Oilers?” The Herald answered this question in a clear and concise way that helped readers understand what went wrong in Saturday’s game. The Panthers made the choice to go for a 0-for-6 on a power play and “also allowed a shorthanded goal in an uncharacteristically poor performance.”

The other three questions were, “How good is Panthers center Sasha Barkov? Is help on the way for the Panthers? And who can be a surprise for the Panthers down the stretch?” These questions and answers focused on explaining how Barkov is a strong player and an asset for the team, on Henrik Borgstrom, a talented, incoming player who could join the team next year and on Frank Vatrano, a recently acquired hockey player from the Boston Bruins, who has scored two goals in the past four games.

Let’s hope the Panthers beat the odds in these upcoming seven road games.