Brad Marchand earned the Panthers a point with a late third goal in Sunday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. Carter Verhaeghe scored Florida’s other goal, his first of the season, and Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Lars Eller each collected an assist. Jacob Markström stopped 18 shots in another solid outing, but Florida special teams allowed the Ducks to score thrice on the power play while the Cats went 0-for-4, putting them at 1-for-17 on the young season.

The Kings will looking for the first win of its 60th season after dropping road games to the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks to start the campaign. Artemi Panarin lit the lamp with five minutes left in regulation to get the Los Angeles a point in Saturday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Sharks at SAP Center. Adrian Kempe, Tyler Toffoli and Quinton Byfield each scored on the power play and Anton Forsberg stopped 20 shots before yielding Igor Chernyshov’s second of the game.

• WHEN: 10 p.m. ET
• WHERE: Crypto.com Arena – Los Angeles, CA
• ON THE TUBE: ESPN
• ON THE DIAL: 104.3 WQAM (D/B), 106.3 ESPN (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
• SOCIALS: #TimeToHunt, #GoKingsGo, #FLAvsLAK, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
• ENEMY INTEL: Mayor’s Manor
• FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 1 of 2
• LAST MEETING: @FLA 3, LAK 2 (Recap) – 12/17/25
• NEXT MEETING: January 24, 2027
• PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Markström (1-0-1 .917 / 1.40 1SO) Los Angeles: Kuemper (0-1-0 .724 / 8.08 0SO)
• PLAYER STATS: Florida / Los Angeles

Tuesday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)

• Nashville (1-1-0 2P) at TORONTO (1-2-0 2P) 7 p.m.
• Carolina (1-1-1 3P) at MONTREAL (1-0-1 3P) 7 p.m.
• Minnesota (2-0-0 4P) at BUFFALO (1-1-0 2P) 7 p.m.

Idle: OTT (4P), TBL (4P), BOS (4P), DET (0P)

Cutter Gauthier starred for the home side, scoring twice by ripping shots past Jacob Markström at 16:18 of the first period, from Jackson LaCombe and Leo Carlsson, and 47 seconds into the middle frame, with the assists going to Beckett Sennecke and Carlsson.

Gauthier and Carlsson combined to set up Granlund game-winner with 46 seconds left in the extra session with Gustav Forsling off for tripping Sennecke. Granlund tipped Carlsson’s crisp centering pass home after the Ducks did a fine job moving the puck around the offensive zone on the 4-on-3 opportunity.

The Panthers responded quickly to Gauthier first’s goal, scoring 51 seconds later to tie the game. After Tim Washe gifted the puck to Matthew Tkachuk behind the net, he centered out in front where Carter Verhaeghe nudged the puck over the goal line after Sam Bennett took a couple unusccessful whacks at it.

Marchand, unexpectedly playing in his first game of the season, came up big with 1:50 remaining in regulation. Lars Eller did a great job tracking down a loose puck and putting towards the net and Marchand calmly slung it over Lukáš Dostál’s pad when it ended up on his blade.

The Panthers played a strong road game and probably deserved a better fate as they out-shot the Ducks 31-21, led 52-30 on shot attempts, won 55% of the faceoffs and were the better team 5-on-5. Unfortunately, they were let down by their special teams for a second straight outing. Anaheim cooked with the man-advantage, going 3-for-4, while the Cats came up empty on their four chances. That puts them at a putrid 1-for-17 on the power play three games into the young season. There is simply too much talent on the ice for the lack of results. Florida has only given up goal at 5-on-5 thus far and is leaving points on the table. They have an off-day to think about it before finishing up the trip against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.

The Five Hole

• After putting up 54 points in 52 games in 2025-26, Brad Marchand got right back on the score sheet to help his team collect its fourth point of the season. Marchand played 13:10 and was credited with three shots and one hit in his debut.
• Although he didn’t face a lot of shots, Jacob Markström was again solid for the Panthers, finishing with 18 saves, including six tagged as high-danger, to remain unblemished in regulation time.
• New acquisition Brady Tkachuk remained pointless, but was one of four Panthers to registered four shots on Lukáš Dostál, who stopped 29. Sam Bennett, Seth Jones and Sandis Vilmanis were the others.
• Speaking of Jones he logged a team-high 28:35 of ice time and blocked a shot. Jones’ excellent defensive work is big reason why the Panthers have only given one even-strength goal in three games.
• Carter Verhaeghe and Uvis Balinskis were the only Cats to post plus-two ratings. After an off season last year, it’s good to see Verhaeghe with a goal and an assist after three tilts.

Stat Card

Florida overcame a three-goal deficit and the loss of captain Aleksander Barkov to pluck a point from the San Jose Sharks in a gutsy 4-3 overtime loss at SAP Center on Thursday. Eetu Luostarinen scored twice, including a rare power-play goal, and Matthew Tkachuk fired in his first of the season to the tie the tilt in the third period. Akira Schmid was pretty solid in his Florida debut, stopping 28 of 32 shots faced. Helpers went to Lars Eller, Aaron Ekblad, Dmitry Kulikov, Anton Lundell and Sam Bennett, who each collected their first point of the 2026-27 campaign. Barkov has been placed on LTIR and the Cats have recalled forward Sam Laffery and defenseman Alexander Petrovic from Charlotte. Brad Marchand will make his season debut.

Anaheim opened its 2026-27 schedule with a positive result on Friday, building a four-goal lead on the host Vegas Golden Knights before holding on for dear life and a 4-3 victory. Beckett Sennecke, Alex Killorn, Jeff Malott and $18 million dollar man Leo Carlsson scored the goals and Lukáš Dostál turned aside 27 shots for the Ducks, who are looking to build on last season’s playoff appearance.Former Panther A.J. Greer had the primary assist on Carlsson’s game-winner.

• WHEN: 8 p.m. ET
• WHERE: Honda Center – Anaheim, CA
• ON THE TUBE: Scripps, Prime Video, KCOT-TV
• ON THE DIAL: 104.3 WQAM (D/B), WBZT 1230 AM (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
• SOCIALS: #FlaPanthers, #FlyTogether, #FLAvsANA, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
• FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 1 of 2
• LAST MEETING: @ANA 7, FLA 3 (Recap) – 11/4/25
• NEXT MEETING: February 20, 2027
• PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Markström (1-0-0 1.000 / 0.00 1SO) Anaheim: Dostál (1-0-0 .900 / 3.00 0SO)
• PLAYER STATS: Florida / Anaheim

Sunday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)

• Winnipeg 3, DETROIT 2

Idle: BOS (4P), MTL (3P), OTT (2P), BUF (2P), TBL (2P), TOR (2P)

Florida’s next opponent, the Anaheim Ducks opened their season with a 4-3 road win over the Vegas Golden Knights last night in Sin City. The Boston Bruins took the early lead in the Atlantic Division with a 4-3 overtime victory against the Winnipeg Jets. In other games, the New York Rangers blanked the Detroit Red Wings 2-0; the St. Louis Blues did the same to the Dallas Stars by a 4-0 count; and the Washington Capitals cruised to a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

26 of the league’s teams will be in action tonight in the first full day of action so far this season. NHL Network will be broadcasting the Seattle-Edmonton tilt at 7 p.m.

Saturday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)

• Chicago (0-2-0 0P) at BUFFALO (0-1-0 0P) 7 p.m.
• OTTAWA (0-0-0 0P) at TORONTO (1-1-0 2P) 7 p.m.
• Washington (1-0-0 2P) at TAMPA BAY (0-1-0 0P) 7 p.m.
• MONTREAL (1-0-0 2P) at Pittsburgh (1-0-0 2P) 7 p.m.
• BOSTON (2-0-0 4P) at Minnesota (1-0-0 2P) 8 p.m.

Idle: FLA (3P), DET (0P)

In prospect news, Simas Ignatavicius was credited with two shots, a block and went 1-for-1 on faceoffs while playing 12:38 in Genève-Servette HC’s 3-2 shootout win over SC Bern in action from the National League in Switzerland.

Stepan Gorbunov logged 16:44 of ice time and finished with three shots on goal and won 10-of-18 faceoffs in Traktor Chelyabink’s 3-2 victory over AK Bars Kazan in action from the KHL.

Vilho Vanhatalo registered two shots on goal in 6:34 in Tappara’s 3-2 overtime win over Jokerit in action from Finland’s Liiga.

Shamar Moses was credited with three shots on goal and went minus-one in North Bay Battalion’s 4-1 loss to the London Knights in OHL action.

Jonas Kemps had two shots on goal and was called for a roughing minor in the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-1 loss to the Wenatchee Wild in action from the WHL.

If you haven’t already, sign up for LBC’s ninth annual Regular Season Predictions Contest. The deadline is 7 p.m. tonight or thereabouts.

Former Panther Mason Marchment opened the scoring with 5:40 left in the first period, beating Akira Schmid unassisted with a wrister through traffic.

San Jose doubled its lead 5:52 into the second when Macklin Celebrini stole the puck from Matthew Tkachuk and headed up ice with Will Smith on a shorthanded 2-on-1 break. Celebrini crossed to Smith and his hard wrist shot from the right circle flew by Schmid’s blocker.

The Panthers suffered a potentially devastating blow to their season at 8:07 when Barkov fell awkwardly while battling for the puck with Darnell Nurse and Zack Ostapchuk. Barkov immediately left the rink, throwing his gloves to the ground in frustration. Cross your fingers as that looked pretty serious…

Shortly after, the Sharks would tack on another special teams goal, this time on the power play, to extend its lead to three. After Schmid made a fantastic save on Celebrini’s wrap-around attempt, Smith was able to crash the crease and stuff the puck home at 10:37. Cagnoni drew the secondary assist on Smith’s second of the night.

Eetu Luostarinen would start the comeback late in the frame, cleaning up a rebound on the backhand after Lars Eller deflected Aaron Ekblad shot down into the pads of Yaroslav Askarov. It was Florida’s first power-play goal of the new campaign.

Luostarinen got another 5:01 into the third to pull the pesky Cats within one. Anton Lundell sent the puck back to Dmitry Kulikov, who slung a shot that first struck Luostarinen in the high slot and then bounced off Cagnoni on its way by a befuddled Askarov.

Matthew Tkachuk tied the tilt seventeen seconds later when he was set up by Sam Bennett and took his time before shooting the puck between the legs of Nolan Allan and past a screened Askarov. Bennett checked Michael Misa along the left boards to free the puck and made a nice pass to the waiting Tkachuk.

Overtime belonged to the speedy Sharks. They dominated the extra session and ended it on their sixth shot when Smith collected an errant Celebrini pass at center and then re-entered the zone before spotting an open Cagnoni, who solved the moving Schmid along the ice.

Props to the gutsy Panthers, who were without late scratch Gustav Forsling, for overcoming a rough start, the loss of Barkov and three-point performances from both Smith and Celebrini to pluck a point from the rising Sharks in San Jose’s season-opener. After going 0-for-7 on the power play in Raleigh, they finally did get a goal, but failed to score five other times with a man-advantage and gave up a shorty, No bueno. They need to improve in that department asap. Can’t have the power play costing you points on the road. We’ll hold our breath and hope for “positive” news on Barkov when he is properly assessed today.

The Five Hole

• A big night for hardworking third-liner Eetu Luostarinen, who scored twice, including a rare power-play goal – the sixth of his career. Luostarinen played 16:28 and was credited with three shots and a block.
• Akira Schmid made his regular season debut with Florida and stopped 28 of 32 shots faced.
• Brady Tkachuk is still looking for his first point with his new team, but he did lead the club with four shots on goal and matched Boko Imama with a team-high five hits.
• Uvis Balinkis filled in for Gustav Forsling and made an impact. Balinskis dropped Collin Graf to win their second period bout and finished with three hits, a shot and a block.
• Veteran center Lars Eller collected his first point as a Panther with his primary assist on Luostarinen’s man-advantage goal.

Stats Card

Florida opened its 33rd season of play with a highly-satisfying 1-0 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Gustav Forsling struck the decisive blow with 4.3 seconds left in overtime when he drove a one-timer past Brandon Bussi with the lone assist going to Carter Verhaeghe. Jacob Markström’s first game with the Cats since 2014 went swimmingly, as he stopped all 15 shots faced to post his 26th career shutout. The Panthers penalty kill (6-for-6) was awesome sauce while the power play… well, let’s just say there is room for improvement.

The young Sharks made huge strides last year, finishing with 39 wins and 86 points, a 34-point improvement from their miserable 2024-25 campaign. Macklin Celebrini exploded for 45 goals, 70 assists and 115 points in his second season in the league and fellow sophomore Will Smith was second on the squad with 24 goals and 59 points. The tandem of Yaroslav Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic returns in net. That’s an area that could be in need of an upgrade if San Jose wants to end its long playoff drought. Paging Connor Hellebuyck.

• WHEN: 10 p.m. ET
• WHERE: SAP Center – San Jose, CA
• ON THE TUBE: Scripps, NBCSCA
• ON THE DIAL: 104.3 WQAM (D/B), 106.3 ESPN (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
• SOCIALS: #FlaPanthers, #TurnItAllTeal, #FLAvsSJS, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
• ENEMY INTEL: San Jose Hockey Now
• FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 1 of 2
• LAST MEETING: SJS 4, @FLA 1 (Recap) – 1/19/26
• NEXT MEETING: February 21, 2027
• PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Schmid San Jose: Askarov
• PLAYER STATS: Florida / San Jose

Thursday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)

• TAMPA BAY (0-0-0 0P) at New York Rangers (0-1-0 0P) 7 p.m.
• BUFFALO (0-0-0 0P) at Columbus (0-0-0 0P) 7 p.m.

Idle: BOS (2P), MTL (2P), TOR (2P), DET (0P), OTT (0P)

Gustav Forsling one-timed Carter Verhaeghe’s pass past Brandon Bussi from just inside the blue line with 4.3 seconds left in the extra session for the game’s only goal, which came on Florida’s 20th shot.

Jacob Markström was perfect in his Panthers’ return, stopping all 15 shots faced to post his 26th career shutout. Markström’s last turn between the pipes with Florida was back on April 13, 2014. One of his best moments came when he denied Sebastian Aho on a breakaway in the second period.

The Cats were pretty stout defensively and the penalty kill went a tidy 6-for-6. If there was one disappointing takeaway from the contest it was the power play, which went a dreadful 0-for-7 and generated very few quality scoring chances.

While not the most exciting of season-openers, both teams put forth a punishing, physical effort, combining for 84 hits in a game that was a strange, but interesting, mix of both rustiness and playoff-style hockey.

The Panthers are going to California, not with an aching in their hearts, but with a big two points, where they will serve as the opponent for the home-openers of the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. One early saving grace on this trip west is there are no back-to-backs scheduled. The Revenge Tour is off and running.

The Five Hole

• In addition to his offensive heroics, First Star Gustav Forsling was credited with two shots, three hits and two shot blocks. Forsling only scored twice last season, so it was good to see him bag one in the opener.
• Brady Tkachuk was the third skater on the ice for Forsling’s game-winner. Tkachuk played 16:33, had one shot on goal and dished out five hits in his first official tilt with Florida.
• Seth Jones was a quiet force all night long, repeatedly defusing the Hurricanes attack with his strong, heady play. Jones was on the ice a game-high 28:59 and was credited with one hit and one block.
• Aleksander Barkov logged 20:32 of ice time in his return to the regular season lineup. Barkov won 10-of-20 faceoffs, registered one shot on goal and had one block.
• Niko Mikkola matched Sebastian Aho with a game-high four shots and was credited with two blocks in his 22:40 of ice time.

Stat Card

A) The First and Last place teams from each of the NHL’s four divisions (so that’s eight selections). Sure, picking the winner is usually the way these things go, but are you also knowledgeable enough to suss out the league’s bottom-feeders in addition to its powerhouses?

B) The amount of points the Florida Panthers will finish the 2025-26 season with

C) Which team will make the greatest improvement (in points) this season over last season

D) Which team will see the greatest decrease (in points) this season over last season

E) Which player will lead the league in points (Art Ross winner)

F) Which player will lead the league in goals (Rocket Richard winner)

G) And finally the tiebreaker, the amount of wins our Cats will finish the campaign with

Scoring

Team picks: Five points will be awarded for every first place correctly selected and three points will be awarded for every last place team correctly selected.

Panthers: If you hit the nail on the proverbial head and correctly call the number of points Florida finishes with, you will receive ten points.

If you come within 3 points (over or under) of the number of points the Panthers finish with, you will receive five points.

If you come within 4-6 points of the number of points the Panthers finish with, you will receive 3 points.

If you are 7 or more points off from the Cats’ final total… you get nada.

Increase/Decrease: There will be five points awarded for a correct pick in each of these two categories. If there is a tie (say Chicago and San Jose each increase their point totals by 20) then there are two right answers and both selections get awarded points.

Art Ross and Rocket Richard Trophy Winners: These categories will be worth 3 points each.

* The maximum amount of points you can amass in this year’s contest is 58

** The tiebreaker will only come into play if there is a tie between multiple contestants.

Enter your picks like this (these are not my personal picks) in the comment section. Picks must be entered by 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 3.

Atlantic: Florida / Toronto

Metropolitan: Carolina / Columbus

Central: Colorado / Winnipeg

Pacific: San Jose / Vancouver

Panthers points: 111 (51 wins)

Greatest increase: San Jose

Greatest decrease: Columbus

Art Ross winner: Nikita Kucherov

Rocket Richard winner: Nathan MacKinnon

Let’s get ready to rumble, prognosticators! Good luck!

Carolina, who defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in six games to win its its second title in June, return much of the same lineup, with goaltender Frederik Andersen the only notable departure. Brandon Bussi racked up 31 wins last season, but struggled at the end of the campaign. However, Bussi’s heroics led to the Hurricanes winning the title. Rising star Seth Jarvis underwent offseason surgery in late June to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff in his shoulder and will miss considerable time.

• WHEN: 5 p.m. ET
• WHERE: Lenovo Center – Raleigh, NC
• ON THE TUBE: ESPN
• ON THE DIAL: 104.3 WQAM (D/B), 106.3 ESPN (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
• SOCIALS: #FlaPanthers, #CarolinaCulture, #FLAvsCAR, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
• ENEMY INTEL: Canes Country
• FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 1 of 3
• LAST MEETING: @CAR 9, FLA 1 (Recap) – 1/16/26
• NEXT MEETING: January 21, 2027
• PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Markstrom Carolina: Bussi
• PLAYER STATS: Florida / Carolina

Tuesday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)

• MONTREAL at TORONTO 7 p.m.
• New York Rangers at BOSTON 7 p.m.

Idle: BUF, DET, OTT, TBL

On Sunday, the Panthers signed forward Nathan Bastian to a one-year, two-way deal worth $850K at the NHL level. Props to Bastian for coming to camp on a PTO and earning a contract.

The team also placed Bastian and the following seven players – forwards Cole Reinhardt and Cole Schwindt, John Beecher, Sam Lafferty and Kai Schwindt and defensemen Donovan Sebrango and Alex Petrovic – on waivers to get them to the Charlotte Checkers.

Defensemen Tobais Björnfot and Casey Fitzgerald, and forward Angus Crookshank cleared waivers yesterday and will report to Checkers training camp.

The spate of weekend moves has tough forward Bokondji Imana somewhat surprisingly on the current roster. A sign that Jonah Gadjovich isn’t coming back anytime soon.

Once Gadjovich and Brad Marchand, who is expected to be out until early November, are officially placed on injured reserve, I would expect the Panthers to recall another forward as they currently only 12 healthy bodies to man the front lines.

As expected, Uvis Balinskis made the team as the seventh defenseman.

Florida will open the season against the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center in Raleigh on Tuesday in the first of three opening-night games on ESPN. Time to serve some notice.