Senators and Panthers square off on opening Saturday of season

The sunshine once again turns to spotlight on Saturday night, as the Senators cap off a Florida road trip with a swing to Sunrise to take on the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers.

Coming off an impressive comeback win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Senators will look to hand the Panthers their first loss of 2025–26.

“We showed resilience,” said goaltender Linus Ullmark of the win. “We easily could have caved in [down two goals], but the guys stuck with it, and I thought that we brought our ‘A’ game more and more, and got settled into a rhythm, and came out victorious at the end, which I think we deserved.”

With the Panthers being the second divisional opponent in a row for the Sens, Ullmark is cognizant of the extra meaning of these matchups — especially with Tampa Bay and Florida combining for four of the last six championships.

“There are no easy games in this division,” said Ullmark. “If you can beat these guys and show that you’re better than them, there’s a very good opportunity for you to show that you have what it takes to go all the way.”

Loose Pucks

Fabian Zetterlund was active on the forecheck on Thursday. Playing on a line with Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle, Zetterlund racked up seven hits — a career high.

The Tkachuk-Stützle-Zetterlund line also created one of two five-on-five goals for the Sens. Stützle and Tkachuk assisted on Artem Zub’s second period marker, as Zetterlund was screening Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Travis Green didn’t commit to any lineup changes on Saturday, but did call changing both the forward group and the defence group “options.”

All 32 teams will be in action on Saturday for the first of two times this season. The second is Oct. 28, when Ottawa visits Chicago.

The Faceoff

The Senators had the upper hand last year on the Panthers, winning twice (3-1, 3-0) at home and losing 5-1 on the road. Ullmark, Saturday’s projected starter, started two of those games. He allowed just four goals on 79 shots, good for a .949 save percentage.

In the regular season, Ullmark holds a lifetime 13-4-1 record against Florida with a goals against average of 2.47 and a save percentage of .930.

Senators forward Nick Cousins won the Stanley Cup with the Panthers in 2024. He played 148 regular season and 33 playoff games with the team between 2022 and 2024.

The Panthers will be without core pieces of their team after three gruelling runs to the Cup Finals. Captain Alex Barkov will be out seven to nine months after undergoing knee surgery, while Brady’s brother Matthew Tkachuk could be out until December with a lower-body injury.

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