QUICK HITS
BLUES After 65 minutes (and two no-goals), Connor McMichael scored his first career shootout goal to secure the Blues' second straight win and first shootout win since Jan. 16. While it won't officially count as a goal on his season statistics, it was a big moment for McMichael as it was his first time finding the back of the net since Oct. 8.
"I think we were resilient," he said. "We had a lot of chances that didn't fall for us, a lot of big kills. We didn't get too high or too low, we just stuck with it and came out with two points. That's a huge win for us."
Jake Neighbours opened the scoring for the Blues in the shootout. The penalty kill went 4-for-4 and Joel Hofer made 29 saves for his 10th career shutout.
"Hofer's been sensational for us since the first game of the season, and he just continues to lead our team in competitive spirit and second and third effort," said Head Coach Jim Montgomery.
PANTHERS After three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances and back-to-back championships in 2024 and 2025, the Florida Panthers finished last season with a 37-36-3 record and no playoffs. A franchise record of 540 man-games lost to injury ended Florida's six-year postseason streak.
Aside from getting healthy during the offseason, General Manager Bill Zito swung for the fences, acquiring former Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk to play alongside his brother, Matthew. In his first 10 games with Florida, Brady became just the third player in NHL history to score a natural hat trick in back-to-back games. In 20 games with the Panthers, he has 10 goals and 21 points.
The Panthers also acquired goaltender Jacob Markstrom and forward Angus Crookshank from the New Jersey Devils, forward Garnett Hathaway from the Philadelphia Flyers and forward Mackie Samoskevich from the Seattle Kraken.
Forward Eetu Luostarinen signed an eight-year contract extension on July 1 and goaltender Akira Schmid signed a two-year contract after being traded to the Panthers by the Vegas Golden Knights. Defenseman Radko Gudas, who played with the Panthers from 2020-2023, was re-acquired in a sign-and-trade with the Anaheim Ducks, inking a six-year contract.
Florida parted ways with goaltender Sergei Bobrovksy, who signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Forwards Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and Ben Steeves were traded to the New Jersey Devils, forward A.J. Greer was traded to the Anaheim Ducks and goaltender Daniil Tarasov signed with the Detroit Red Wings in free agency.
Florida is the most penalized team in the NHL by a wide margin - leading with 315 penalty minutes in 20 games. Their special teams remains a strength though as their power play ranks 12th in the league at 23.8 percent and their penalty kill is fourth-best in the NHL at 86.3 percent.
The Panthers are on a two-game winning streak after scoring three unanswered goals against the Red Wings on Thursday for a 5-4 home win. Florida is 6-5-2 on the road this season and Matthew Tkachuk leads the offense with four goals and 24 assists. They will be without captain Aleksander Barkov and forward Brad Marchand, who are sidelined with knee injuries.
