"We're going to face adversity as a team," Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. "It's about coming back to work tomorrow and finding a way. We know we're a good team, and we're going to find a way."
Still sitting at 18-6-4 despite the lopsided loss, the Panthers aren't the first team to fall victim to the Senators in recent weeks. Winning five of their last six games to improve to 9-16-1, Ottawa has already taken down the Lightning, Avalanche, Devils and Hurricanes since the calendar flipped to December.
"Right now it leaves a tough taste in our mouth, but it's how we respond," Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said. "A loss is a loss. We'll come back, regroup tomorrow and get ready for Thursday."
Firing on all cylinders right out of the gate, the Senators took an early lead when Austin Watson whacked a rebound past Spencer Knight to make it a 1-0 game just 4:38 into the opening period.
Pushing right back, Jonathan Huberdeau then answered for the Panthers when he crashed the net and chipped a nice centering feed from Reinhart right over Anton Forsberg's blocker to make it 1-1 at 13:05.
On the power play to start the second period, the Panthers fell behind once again when, following an unfortunate turnover, Dylan Gambrell buried a shorthanded breakaway to put Ottawa up 2-1 at 1:30.
Evening things up a bit later, Reinhart followed up on a shot from Anton Lundell and banged home the ensuing rebound to make it a 2-2 game at 15:33. But less than a minute later, Josh Norris found the back of the net -- although the call was initially delayed a bit -- to send the Senators back ahead 3-2 at 16:12.
Just 1:14 after that, Tim Stützle scored to extend Ottawa's lead to 4-2.
"They found a way to gain momentum," Ekblad said. "We just didn't get it back the rest of the game."
Keeping their foot on the gas, Norris tallied his second goal of the night when he tapped in a pass from Drake Batherson from on the doorstep to put the Senators up 5-2 just 23 seconds into the third period.
"Unfortunately we have those catastrophic kind of little stretches and then the next thing you know it's 4-2," Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette said. "We felt we were in a good position going into the third. We felt fine for the most part of the game. Then we start the period off, and they make it 5-2."
Piling on the goals later in the period, Drake Batherson scored to make it 6-2. After that, Nick Paul potted a pair of goals on the power play at 14:23 and 14:57, respectively, to lock down the 8-2 final.
Eager to move on from this loss, the Panthers will look to rebound against the Kings on Thursday.
"I think you've got to wipe the slate clean and learn from some of the things we did," Brunette said when asked about pushing forward. "We were a little undisciplined at times in our whole game. I think we got frustrated. I don't think we had the energy level we have on most nights, but I thought we dug."
Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's loss in Sunrise…