Horachek: No playoffs empty feeling for Panthers

Florida Panthers interim coach Peter Horachek, who may or may not be back with the team next year, wants his players to take note of what it feels like to be on the outside looking in at the playoffs.

“It’s kind of an empty feeling when you finish that game and you know you’re not going into the playoffs,’’ Horachek said, via The Sun Sentinel, Friday. “It’s a bad feeling and I really want the players to feel that it’s a bad feeling.

“I don’t want to be in this feeling going forward. I want us to feel like we should be in the playoffs, the only thing we should be thinking about.

“It’s not bittersweet that finally it’s over. I feel like we should still be playing and in the future we have to push harder to get to that point.’’

The franchise has missed the playoffs in 12 of the past 13 years.

Source: Harvey Filakov, Sun Sentinel