Panthers Mediocrity

Admittedly I'm not much of a hockey fan. I did grow up with that fun core of Panthers that made the Stanley Cup Finals back in 96, but in general I only loosely follow how they're doing. That being said, isn't it about time they at least make the playoffs? I mean they consistently get top 5 picks and I believe they had the #1 overall twice in a row (just barely missed out on Ovechkin that one year).

This past summer they locked up several players but judging from the results this year, either they miss the playoffs yet again or manage to squeeze in and get bounced early on. Trading Luongo for a used jockstrap didn't help any either.