Hoffman looking forward to 'special game' with Panthers against Senators

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Mike Hoffman will try to extend the longest active point streak in the NHL on Sunday and will try to do it against his former team.

The Florida Panthers forward has 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in the 11-game streak heading into their game against the Ottawa Senators at BB&T Center on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; TVAS, FS-F, TSN5, NHL.TV).
"Looking forward to it," Hoffman said after scoring a goal in Florida's 4-2 victory against the New York Islanders on Saturday. "Obviously it's a special game. There would be nothing better than to get the two points."
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Hoffman, who didn't have a point in Florida's first two games of the season, joined Pavel Bure on Saturday as the only Panthers players to have a point streak of at least 11 games.
Hoffman, who played his first seven NHL seasons with the Senators, was traded by Ottawa to San Jose Sharks with defenseman prospect Cody Donaghey and a fifth-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft for forward Mikkel Boedker, defenseman prospect Julius Bergman and a sixth-round pick in 2020 on June 19. About two hours later, the Sharks traded Hoffman to the Panthers with a seventh-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft for a fourth-round and a fifth-round pick in 2018 and a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.

The trade of Hoffman, 28, from Ottawa came a week after a report by the Ottawa Citizen claimed Melinda Karlsson, the wife of Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson, had filed an application for a peace bond against Hoffman's girlfriend, Monika Caryk, alleging harassment and cyberbullying that occurred last season and continued after the Karlssons' son, Axel, was stillborn.
Hoffman has denied the allegations.
Karlsson was traded to the Sharks on Sept. 13.
"I had some good relationships on that team," said Hoffman, who had 230 points (107 goals, 123 assists) in 342 games with the Senators. "I was there for a long time, played with some of those players for a lot of years. I definitely stay in contact with a few of them."
The game Sunday will be the first of four between the Panthers (5-5-3) and Senators (7-7-3) this season. Hoffman's first game back in Ottawa is Nov. 19.
"Obviously being in the same division, we're going to play each other a few times," Hoffman said. "Looking forward to the first one."