The Florida Panthers suffered only their second home loss of the 2021 NHL Season on Tuesday night.
The Ottawa Senators came to town (Sunrise, FL) for the first time in over a year, and to say the least, they showed up. Ottawa scored eight times on Spencer Knight, while Florida could only slip two goals past Senators goalie Anton Forsberg.
Recap
The Panthers entered Tuesday’s matchup as heavy favorites. Florida came in with an 18-5-4 record compared to Ottawa’s 8-16-1 record. Plus, the Panthers came in with only one loss at home. However, things took a turn for the unexpected.
Anthony Duclair returned to the lineup for Florida after missing eight games. His return happened to come against his former team, where he was tenured from 2019-2020. Duclair finished the game with three shots on goal, but had no goals or assists.
Jonathan Huberdeau (2 SOG) and Sam Reinhart (1 SOG) scored the lone goals for Florida. Huberdeau boosted his career totals against Ottawa to 9-16—25 in 27 outings.
Meanwhile, Nick Paul, Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Tim Stutzle, Dylan Gambrell and Austin Watson all scored for Ottawa.
In total, the Senators had 38 shots on the net, and only 30 of them were stopped by Spencer Knight. Even more impressive; the eight goals all came from seven different players.
Ottawa became the fourth team this season to score eight goals in a game – and the first on the road.
Next Up
The Panthers will host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night. Puck drop is at 7:00 PM EST.
(Featured image by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)