Scouting Report
The Panthers overcame a two-goal deficit, thanks to a huge third period pair from Aaron Ekblad and Carter Verhaeghe’s overtime-winner, to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins by a 5-4 count in their season-opener at FLA Live Arena. Florida got 43 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky, including a breakaway stop on Evan Rodrigues right before Verhaeghe notched his second to win it, a goal from Anthony Duclair, and a two-assist effort from Aleksander Barkov, who absolutely dominated in the faceoff department. Negatives in the wild victory were too many penalties and a dreadful 0 for 6 performance on the power play.