For his part, coach Claude Julien was impressed with his team's effort in the outing.
"I liked a lot of things tonight. The first period was a little more difficult, but we adjusted. We also had a lot of scoring chances that we just weren't able to capitalize on," explained Julien, whose troops pelted Panthers netminders Roberto Luongo and Michael Hutchinson - who shared crease duties on Wednesday - with 33 shots through 60 minutes. "To me, the score didn't reflect the game."
Peca's time to shine
Habs freshman Matthew Peca made the most of his 16:39 of ice time in his Canadiens debut on Wednesday night. The 25-year-old forward, who has 20 games of NHL experience under his belt, opened the scoring with a power-play marker in the first period before picking up an assist on Nikita Scherbak's third-period snipe with a great play from his own end later in the evening.
"The system is different, but I did my best and it worked out," said the humble former seventh-round pick, who was promoted to second-line duties mid-game.