Florida @ Ottawa preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 16, 2019 ) Ottawa 1, Florida 6

The Florida Panthers hit a speed bump to start a four-game road trip and look to begin speeding up again when they visit the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night for an Atlantic Division battle. The Panthers had won five of six games - scoring 28 times in the victories - before giving up three unanswered goals in the final 24-plus minutes of a 4-1 setback at Columbus on Tuesday.

“Move forward,” Florida coach Joel Quenneville told reporters of the mindset after outshooting the Blue Jackets 37-28 in the loss. “We won some games there. Maybe we were fortunate, but at the same time there’s a lot of positives exiting this game. Let’s think about one game at a time on the rest of this trip and let’s recapture some momentum.” The Panthers, who sit in fourth place in the Atlantic Division and one point out of a playoff position, have earned at least a point in six of the last seven meetings after Noel Acciari recorded a hat trick in a 6-1 victory over Ottawa on Dec. 16. The Senators (11-5-2 at home) own at least a point in eight of their last 10 games (4-2-4), but have dropped two straight after a 5-2 setback at Pittsburgh on Monday. “We knew what we were coming into,” Ottawa forward Nick Paul told reporters after scoring twice Monday. “We’ve got to get back to playing a full 60 minutes, we can’t have any letups. We’ve just got to tighten up our game.”

TIME: 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: FS Florida, RDS2, TSN5

ABOUT THE PANTHERS (20-14-5): Left wing Jonathan Huberdeau saw his six-game point streak (five goals, 11 assists) end Tuesday, but is tied for seventh in the league with 53 points overall. Captain Aleksander Barkov registered five (two goals, three assists) of his 45 points in the past three contests and Acciari’s hat trick against Ottawa began a stretch of seven games in which he scored eight times to push his career-high total to 13. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky lost in his return to Columbus on Tuesday and allowed 19 goals while going 2-2-0 over the last four games to see his save percentage dip to .897.

ABOUT THE SENATORS (16-19-5): Left wing Anthony Duclair was named to the All-Star Game with a career-high 21 goals and also leads the team with 31 points - two more than versatile center Jean-Gabriel Pageau (18 goals). Ottawa defenseman Nikita Zaitsev (lower body) practiced Wednesday and could return to the lineup after missing the last seven games while fellow blue liners Ron Hainsey (knee) and Dylan DeMelo (finger) remain out. Veteran goalie Craig Anderson (6-8-1, .907 SP) will likely be back in net after being rested Monday and owns a .933 SP in his last six appearances between the pipes.

OVERTIME

1. Pageau was fined $2,500 by the league for his late-game antics with Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin on Monday.

2. Florida D Anton Stralman has a goal and two assists during his three-game point streak.

3. The Senators rank last in the league on the power play (11.2 percent) while the Panthers are just 11-for-19 killing penalties the last six games.

PREDICTION: Panthers 4, Senators 2