Paul Maurice is trying to look at the Florida Panthers’ current predicament from a glass-half-full lens. The Panthers are in the midst of a rare rough patch, having dropped three of their past four games, including blowing a third-period lead in two of those defeats. They are missing key players — star winger Matthew Tkachuk to an apparent groin injury, newly acquired winger Brad Marchand to an upper-body injury, top-pairing defenseman Aaron Ekblad to suspension and potentially defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to an upper-body injury sustained early in their 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Sunday. But the Panthers head coach is embracing the adversity, welcoming the trials and tribulations, as the Panthers get into the final month of the regular season ahead of their attempt to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. The path to the Cup is rarely a straight line, almost never without hiccups along the way. So from Maurice’s vantage point, bring on the challenges that lie ahead. “There’s a certain amount of humbling you want to have happen before you go into the playoffs,” Maurice said. “We still have some work to do to get there.” Florida, for its part, has built itself some cushion in the standings. The Panthers (41-24-3, 85 points) have a four-point cushion over the Tampa Bay Lightning (38-23-5, 81 points) and Toronto Maple Leafs (39-24-3, 81 points) for the top spot in the Atlantic Division and are 13 points clear of the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot, which entering Monday was occupied by the New York Rangers (33-29-6, 72 points). But the Panthers’ closing stretch of the season will be anything but easy. The Panthers have 14 games left in their regular season, including four more sets of back-to-backs. Twelve of those games are against teams that are either currently in the playoff field entering Monday or are within two points of a wild-card spot. “Everybody is fighting for their lives right now,” Maurice said. “It’s a grinder to the finish.” So the Panthers need to figure out how to get back to their game. That means shutdown third periods. Before this recent four-game road stretch — a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday and 4-2 loss to the Islanders on Sunday — Florida was 28-2-0 when leading after two periods. The Panthers doubled the loss total on that front last week by blowing two-goal leads in the third period against the Bruins and Islanders. Boston scored three goals in a span of 7:47 to take the lead for good, while the Islanders scored three goals in 6:04 to take the lead Sunday and sealed the game with an empty-netter in the dying seconds of regulation. “We have to be better, especially in third periods when we have the leads,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “Play better. That’s on us. Stick to our game plan. I think we’ve been trying to defend the whole period. We need to play our own game the whole 60 minutes, not just 40 minutes. We need to be confident enough to play with the puck.” That means getting the offense going more consistently. Florida has scored just eight goals during the past four games after finding the back of the net 20 times during the six-game win streak that preceded this funk. And that means figuring things out with their defensemen. Florida’s depth was already being tested with Ekblad suspended for the rest of the regular season (plus the Panthers’ first two playoff games) due to a failed drug test. If Dmitry Kulikov misses time beyond Sunday — Maurice didn’t have an immediate update postgame Sunday — then the Panthers will be relying even more on Gustav Forsling, Seth Jones and Niko Mikkola to play heavy minutes. The Panthers will have a little bit of time for rest and to reset before continuing this road trip. Their next game is Thursday at the Columbus Blue Jackets, so the team is flying back to South Florida on Monday and will leave for Columbus on Wednesday afternoon. The trip wraps up Saturday against the Washington Capitals. “We have some good time now to just get home, get some rest before we go back on the road,” Barkov said. “Forget about this one and move on.”