"They're a young, hungry team that's out to prove themselves, and no better team to prove [themselves] than against us," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said of Ottawa following Friday's practice. "It'll be a challenge tomorrow night. They're going to play hard.
"We talked about it after the game last night. There are all these teams who record-wise maybe aren't there, but these are their playoffs. These are games where they're trying to prove themselves. … We know every night we're going to get the other team's best game."
Owning an 8-1-1 record over their last 10 games on the road, the Panthers opened up their three-game swing through Canada with a 4-3 win over the Canadiens on Thursday in which all three of the team's trade-deadline acquisitions managed to find their way onto the scoresheet.
Claude Giroux, who was deployed on both the top line and top power-play unit, dished out a pair of assists, while Ben Chiarot and Robert Hagg each chipped in a helper from the blue line.
Aleksander Barkov, Mason Marchment, Anthony Duclair and Sam Reinhart all touched twine in Montreal, with Reinhart's big power-play tally in the third period holding up as the game-winner.
Leading the NHL in goals (256) and goals per game (4.06), Florida's lineup features a league-high six different players that have scored at least 20 goals this season: Barkov (27), Duclair (25), Sam Bennett (25), Reinhart (24), Jonathan Huberdeau (21) and Carter Verhaeghe (21).
Third in the NHL in points (88) and first in assists (67), Huberdeau will play his 655th game with the Panthers tonight, which will break a tie with Stephen Weiss for the most in franchise history.
"It's a lot of fun to be a part of," Reinhart said of the team's high-flying, balanced offense. "You're able to conserve a lot of energy throughout the year and feel that much better more often. When you've got this many guys producing, I think it takes pressure off everybody."
Following Friday's practice, Brunette said that Spencer Knight and Sergei Bobrovsky will each get a start in this back-to-back set, which will conclude in Toronto on Sunday. Knight has started each of the past five games - all on the road - going 3-1-1 with a .923 save percentage, while Bobrovsky, who last played on March 10, is 30-6-3 with a .917 save percentage this season.
"We'll figure out which [game], but he'll play," Brunette said of Bobrovsky.
In the fairly early stages of a rebuild, the Senators sit in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with a 23-36-5 record. With wins hard to come by, they've come out on top in just four of their last 14 games while being outscored 50-33 during that slump that began back on Feb. 26.
That being said, the Senators enter tonight's matchup on a high note after ending their three-game road trip with a 5-2 win at Winnipeg on Thursday. Against the Jets, Brady Tkachuk had a pair of goals, while Tyler Ennis, Colin White and Connor Brown also found the back of the net.
Tkachuk leads the Senators in scoring with 46 points (22 goals, 24 assists), while Josh Norris has scored the most goals (26) and Thomas Chabot has handed out the most assists (28).
Turning aside 22 of 24 shots in Winnipeg, Anton Forsberg, who has established himself as Ottawa's No. 1 option in net, improved to 15-13-2. Giving up two-or-fewer goals in six of his last 12 outings, he's posted a 6-5-1 record with a .923 save percentage during that solid stretch.
Splitting the first two games of their season series, the Panthers secured a 3-0 win in their latest meeting with the Senators on March 3 in Sunrise behind an 18-save shutout from Bobrovsky.
"These are important games," Reinhart said. "Everyone is kind of jockeying for position right now. If we can keep our foot on the gas, it's only going to make things easier down the road."
