Despite not getting the end result, the effort was certainly there in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Running into a red-hot goaltender in Carter Hart, the Panthers fired off 51 shots on goal and a whopping 104 total shot attempts in a 4-3 loss to the Flyers. With all three goals coming from defensemen, Mahura, Gustav Forsling and Brandon Montour touched the twine for the Cats.
Per NaturalStatTrick.com, Florida led 4.99-1.94 in expected goals.
"I think 5-on-5 we were the better team," Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said after the loss. "It was just a couple of breakdowns that led to goals. We can't give up that big of a lead in the NHL. They're a good team too, and they're going to defend well. Overall we had good chances."
Leading the NHL with 577 shot attempts and 323 scoring chances, it feels like it's only a matter of time until the Panthers start to turn some of those those high-quality looks into needed goals.
Matthew Tkachuk leads Florida in scoring with 10 points (four goals, six assists), while Colin White is second with seven points (two goals, five assists), and Eetu Luostarinen (three goals, three assists) and Forsling (two goals, four assists) are tied for third with six points apiece.
In net, Sergei Bobrovsky has posted a 2-3-0 record with a .897 save percentage over his six starts. Backing him up, Spencer Knight sits at 2-0-0 with a .906 save percentage in two starts.
After losing two straight games to start the season, the Senators have found their footing and sit at 4-3-0 after winning four of their last five games. With their four-game winning streak coming to an end, they enter today's matchup on the heels of a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
Against Minnesota, Alex DeBrincat and Thomas Chabot each scored for Ottawa, while Anton Forsberg turned aside 36 of 39 shots between the pipes.
"We get eight points out of 10, but I just think we let one slip a little bit here tonight," Senators head coach D.J. Smith said after the loss. "Take nothing away from them, but you know you'd like to get a point. You've got your six best guys out there at the end and if we find a way to score there, you're in overtime and maybe you steal one."
Brady Tkachuk ranks tied for first on the Senators in goals (5) and points (10). Drake Batherson is tied for first in points (10) and sits alone in first for assists (7). DeBrincat is third in scoring with eight points (two goals, six assists), while Shane Pinto has matched Tkachuk's five goals.
Returning to South Florida, Claude Giroux has posted five points (two goals, three assists).
Starting six of seven games, Forsberg, who sat out one game with an undisclosed ailment, owns a 3-3-0 record with a .908 save percentage. In his lone start of the season, Magnus Hellberg turned aside 29 of 31 shots in a 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars back on Oct. 24.
This matchup will mark the 14th time that the Tkachuk brothers have faced off in the regular season. Matthew won seven of the last 13 -- all as a member of the Calgary Flames -- while logging 13 points (five goals, eight assists) to Brady's six points (three goals, three assists).
"Really fun when we played against each other twice a year," Matthew told the CBC when asked about being in the same division as his brother. "But now the games, they matter a lot. Before they didn't matter as much."
In 2021-22, the Panthers owned a 3-1-0 record against the Senators.
