Make it two in a row!
Picking up some important points out of the gate, the Florida Panthers improved to 2-0-0 with a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday.
As it stands now, they are one of four NHL teams to start 2-0-0 this season.
“I think we’re generating enough,” head coach Paul Maurice said of another hard-fought win for the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. “That’s kind of the expectation, that we’ll probably score a little less right now and hopefully we don’t have to give up less.”
Below, find some numbers that stood out from the win.
6: The number of reigning Stanley Cup champions in the past 30 years that have won each of their first two games of the season. By beating the Flyers, the Panthers joined Vegas (2023-24), Tampa Bay (2020-21), Dallas (1999-00), Detroit (1997-98) and New Jersey (1995-96) as teams that started at least 2-0-0 the season after they lifted the Cup since 1995.
2: Straight games with an assist for Evan Rodrigues. With the primary helper on Anton Lundell’s power-play goal against Philadelphia, Rodrigues can now match the record for the longest such streak to start a season if he can notch an assist on Saturday against the Senators. In franchise history, only five skaters have opened a season with a three-game assist streak.
1: Point for both Jeff Petry and Luke Kunin. Just two games into their first season with Florida, the veteran offseason acquisitions each recorded their first point as Panthers. “It’s nice,” said Petry, who notched the secondary assist on Lundell’s opening goal against the Flyers. “Just making the pass to Rod (Evan Rodrigues), and he and Lundy did all the work.”
23:43: The team-high ice time for Niko Mikkola. With Dmitry Kulikov exiting in the second period against the Flyers with an upper-body injury, the rest of Florida’s defensemen picked up the slack. Gustav Forsling (23:24), Aaron Ekblad (23:20) and Seth Jones (22:09) also saw over 22 minutes of ice time.
20: Shots on goal for the Flyers. Over the first two games of the season, the Panthers have allowed just 39 total shots on goal. But this shot suppression should come as no surprise. Last season, Florida ranked fifth in the NHL with an average of 26.2 shots against per tilt.
27: Hits for the Panthers. Winning the physicality battle, they led 27-17 in hits against the Flyers. Through two games this season, Florida has racked up 55 hits, with eight players recording at least three hits apiece already.
3: High-danger saves for Sergei Bobrovsky. Although he only saw 20 total shots, No. 72 still came up in the clutch when the Panthers needed him most on Thursday. Starting each of the first two games this season, Bobrovsky currently boasts a stellar .923 save percentage.
12: Faceoff wins for Lundell. After winning a career-high 14 draws in the season opener, the fifth-year Finn nearly matched that total against the Flyers. Helping fill the void left by injured captain Aleksander Barkov, Lundell currently ranks tied for second in the NHL with 26 faceoff wins. “I feel like I’ve got so much experience, and now it’s just trying to get out everything I’ve learned,” Lundell said of his growth.
87.5%: Share of shots on goal for the Panthers when the line of Lundell, Eetu Luotarinen, Sam Reinhart was deployed at 5-on-5. When that trio was on the ice, the Flyers mustered just one shot on goal, while giving up seven the other direction.
