Florida Panthers Invade Ottawa Senate; Try to Break .500
Tonight at 7:30 P.M. EST, the Ottawa Senators will host the Florida Panthers at Canadian Tire Centre.
Tonight’s game is the second of four between the two clubs this season. The Florida Panthers defeated the Ottawa Senators, 5-1 at the BB&T Center on November 11th. They’ll play again at BB&T on March 3rd and complete the series at CTC on March 28th.
After starting the season with a 2-5-3 mark, the Panthers reeled off five straight victories. Since then, they’ve lost two straight.
Currently, in the fourth game of a six-game road trip, they started with a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, then lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 7-3 on Thursday and to the New York Rangers, 4-2 on Saturday.
After tonight’s game, they’ll travel to play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday before finishing up against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
The Senators are closing out a three-game homestand. They defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 on Thursday and the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-4 on Saturday.
After tonight, they’ll go on a four-game road trip to play the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday, the Dallas Stars on Friday, the Rangers next Monday, and the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
When Last We Met
The last time the Panthers and the Senators faced off was on November 11th, when the Cats defeated Ottawa, 5-1 at BB&T Center with 11,192 in attendance.
“They’re both skilled and pretty fast, good shots. Those guys can make everything [happen] on the ice, so it’s not hard to play with them.” – Evgeni Dadonov, speaking about Barkov and Hoffman on NHL.com.
Panthers Last
In Florida’s last game, on Saturday, the New York Rangers came away with a 4-2 victory. Hoffman (8) scored a goal and assisted on the other, scored by Aaron Ekblad (3). Barkov, Dadonov, and Mike Matheson also collected dimes in the contest.
Roberto Luongo allowed all four markers on 24 shots in the loss. Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist notched his 438th career win to move to seventh on the all-time NHL leaderboard, while Hoffman’s two points made it 15 games in a row with the veteran on the scoresheet, a Florida record.
“It’s done, it’s over. You can’t control it. We just have to move on and clean up a few areas. But the game in general, I thought for being on the road here and coming out in this building, I thought we did a lot of good things.” – Panthers coach Bob Boughner, as quoted by Jon Lane at NHL.com.
Senators Last
In Ottawa’s last game, the Senators outlasted the Penguins, 6-4 with 17,692 in the house at CTC. Matt Duchene scored twice with an assist, and Mark Stone had two markers.
Drake Batherson, Mikkel Boedker, and Ryan Dzingel each had a pair of helpers, and Cody Ceci and Brady Tkachuk also scored goals in the win.
Former Florida Panthers goalie Craig Anderson picked up the win for the Sens, stopping 31-of-35 in the victory.
“I feel lucky to have played this game as much as I have already and play in this League. I wake up every day and I love what I do.” – Duchene, on getting to 500 points, quoted on NHL.com by Callum Fraser.
All-Time Series
In direct competition, the Florida Panthers are 40-49-3-5 in 97 games against Ottawa. That’s their eighth-worst points percentage (.454) against an NHL opponent.
This Day in History
The Florida Panthers are 5-5-1-1 on November 19th. In 2016, they defeated the Senators, 4-1 in front of 14,132 at CTC. Jaromir Jagr (2), Jussi Jokinen (1), Jon Marchessault (9), and Derek MacKenzie (2) all lit the lamp. Jagr and Barkov also had two assists each in the victory. Roberto Luongo turned aside 39 shots.
“We won 4-1, but we were lucky. Luongo probably stopped probably three, four goals at least. We have to thank Luongo for this win.” – Jagr, as quoted by Chris Stevenson on NHL.com.
Common Thread
Mike Hoffman spent the first seven seasons of his NHL career with the Senators, scoring 107 goals and 123 assists in 342 contests. This will be his first game at CTC as a visiting player.
Ottawa goaltender Anderson played in parts of three seasons for the Panthers, going 24-14-7 and putting up a franchise record .928 save percentage.
Standings
Florida Panthers: 7-7-3, 17 points, .500 points percentage, on pace for 82 points. Last Five: W-W-W-L-L, tied for seventh in the Atlantic Division, tied for 11th in the Eastern Conference, tied for 18th in the NHL, 30.1% playoff chances.
Ottawa Senators: 9-8-3, 21 points, .525 points percentage, on pace for 86 points. Last Five: L-W-L-W-W, sixth in the Atlantic Division, 10th in the Eastern Conference, 17th in the NHL, 22.9% playoff chances.
Probable Starting Lineup
Florida Panthers
63–16–68
11–21–72
7–90–27
78–91–22
1 (unconfirmed)
Ottawa Senators
Tkachuk – Colin White – Mark Stone
Boedker – Duchene – Batherson
Dzingel – Chris Tierney – Bobby Ryan
Magnus Paajarvi – Zack Smith – Tom Pyatt
Thomas Chabot – Dylan Demelo
Maxime Lajoie – Ceci
Mark Borowiecki – Chris Wideman
Anderson (unconfirmed)
Milestones
Games: Ekblad will tie Marcus Nilson with 327 games played, in 24th all-time. Vincent Trocheck is one game ahead in 23rd. Barkov will tie Rostislav Olesz in 20th all-time with his 349th appearance.
Goals: Dadonov will tie Johan Garpenlov in 33rd all-time with his next goal, his 47th. Ekblad will tie Olesz in 19th all-time with his next, his 57th. Nick Bjugstad has 86 and will tie David Booth in 13th with his next. Huberdeau, with 99, is two behind Rob Niedermayer and Viktor Kozlov, tied for eighth.
Assists: Dadonov has 57 assists, and will tie Paul Laus with his next, putting them in 42nd together. Ekblad’s next will tie him with Jozef Stumpel in 23rd, with 84. Keith Yandle has 96 assists, and with two more will tie Bill Lindsay in 19th place.
Points: Dadonov’s next point, his 104th, will tie him in 39th with Bryan McCabe. Trocheck needs two points to tie Ray Whitney in 12th all-time, with 227. Barkov will tie Niedermayer in ninth with two more points, at 266.
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Stat Leaders
Games: Ekblad, Bjugstad, Trocheck, Huberdeau, Barkov, Yandle, Dadonov, Hoffman – 17
Goals: Dadonov, Hoffman – 8, Vatrano, Barkov – 5
Assists: Yandle – 12, Huberdeau – 11, Trocheck, Barkov, Dadonov, Hoffman – 10
Points: Dadonov, Hoffman – 18, Yandle – 16
Plus-Minus: Bjugstad +6, MacKenzie Weegar, Denis Malgin +2
Hits: Alexander Petrovic – 52, Trocheck – 35, Brouwer – 26
Blocked Shots: Petrovic – 30, Matheson – 20, Weegar – 19
Shots-on-Goal: Hoffman – 59, Trocheck – 49, Yandle – 46
Faceoff Percentage: Bjugstad – 54.3%, Barkov – 54.0%, Trocheck – 53.9%, Juho Lammikko – 50.8%, Jared McCann – 45.4%
Birthdays
Former Florida Panther defenseman Dmitry Yushkevich played in 23 games for the 2002-03 Florida Panthers, scoring a goal with six assists. He’s celebrating his 47th birthday.
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