Florida Panthers, without several key players, shut out by Senators for fourth straight loss
At this point, the Florida Panthers are trying whatever they can with whoever they have to find whatever semblance of success that they can.
And for the most part, it has come to no avail.
With a 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon, the Panthers (44-28-4), a shell of who they are at full strength, have now lost all three games so far on this road trip, four consecutive games overall and eight of their past 12 games dating back to March 11.
Against Ottawa, the Panthers outshot the Senators 40-22 but gave up two goals on the first five shots they faced. Jake Sanderson capitalized on a Seth Jones turnover to put Ottawa (41-29-6) up 1-0 11:21 into regulation and Drake Batherson doubled the Senators’ lead with a power-play goal about three minutes later. That was all Ottawa needed, as Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg stopped all 40 Florida shots that came his way. Ottawa sealed the game with a Matthew Highmore empty-net goal.
While this stretch doesn’t put their chances of making the Stanley Cup playoffs and defending their championship from last season in jeopardy, it has put a major dent in their opportunity to win the Atlantic Division.
Florida, with 92 points and six games left to play in the regular season, trails Toronto by four points for the division lead and is also behind the Tampa Bay Lightning by a point in the division standings through games played Saturday afternoon.
While the stretch is concerning, the Panthers have about a week-and-a-half to sort things out before the postseason begins.
That’s how much time they also have to get as close to full strength as possible. They’ve been without several key contributors.
Star winger Matthew Tkachuk has been sidelined with an apparent groin injury sustained early in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in mid-February and won’t return before the playoffs begin.
Top-pair defenseman Aaron Ekblad hasn’t played since March 8 while serving a 20-game suspension that will carry into the first two games of the playoffs. Fellow key defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, sidelined with an upper-body injury, last played March 16.
And captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov (upper-body) and fourth-line center Nico Sturm (upper-body) have each missed the past two games as well. Neither is expected to play Sunday either when the Panthers play at the Detroit Red Wings to cap this four-game road trip.
All five have key roles on special teams in addition to their work at five-on-five. Barkov and Ekblad play on both the power play and penalty kill. Tkachuk is part of the top power-play unit. Sturm and Kulikov play big penalty kill minutes.
With Barkov, Tkachuk and Sturm out, Panthers coach Paul Maurice on Saturday experimented with his forward lines. He put Sam Bennett with Jesper Boqvist and Sam Reinhart to create a new-look top line. Brad Marchand, who has played on Bennett’s line in each of his first four Florida games after being acquired by the Panthers at the trade deadline, moved to a line with center Anton Lundell and left wing Eetu Luostarinen. And Evan Rodrigues centered the Panthers’ third line with Carter Verhaeghe and Mackie Samoskevich on the wings. The fourth line of A.J. Greer, Tomas Nosek and Jonah Gadjovich is one the Panthers have run earlier in the season.
This story was originally published April 5, 2025 at 4:35 PM.
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