The Florida Panthers (1-0-1) are in Orange County to continue a three-game tour of the Golden State when they take on the Anaheim Ducks in their season-opener tonight at Honda Center.
Florida overcame a three-goal deficit and the loss of captain Aleksander Barkov to pluck a point from the San Jose Sharks in a gutsy 4-3 overtime loss at SAP Center on Thursday. Eetu Luostarinen scored twice, including a rare power-play goal, and Matthew Tkachuk fired in his first of the season to the tie the tilt in the third period. Akira Schmid was pretty solid in his Florida debut, stopping 28 of 32 shots faced. Helpers went to Lars Eller, Aaron Ekblad, Dmitry Kulikov, Anton Lundell and Sam Bennett, who each collected their first point of the 2026-27 campaign. Barkov has been placed on LTIR and the Cats have recalled forward Sam Laffery and defenseman Alexander Petrovic from Charlotte. Brad Marchand will make his season debut.
Anaheim opened its 2026-27 schedule with a positive result on Friday, building a four-goal lead on the host Vegas Golden Knights before holding on for dear life and a 4-3 victory. Beckett Sennecke, Alex Killorn, Jeff Malott and $18 million dollar man Leo Carlsson scored the goals and Lukáš Dostál turned aside 27 shots for the Ducks, who are looking to build on last season’s playoff appearance.Former Panther A.J. Greer had the primary assist on Carlsson’s game-winner.
- WHEN: 8 p.m. ET
- WHERE: Honda Center – Anaheim, CA
- ON THE TUBE: Scripps, Prime Video, KCOT-TV
- ON THE DIAL: 104.3 WQAM (D/B), WBZT 1230 AM (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
- SOCIALS: #FlaPanthers, #FlyTogether, #FLAvsANA, @LitterBoxCats, LBC FaceBook
- FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 1 of 2
- LAST MEETING: @ANA 7, FLA 3 (Recap) – 11/4/25
- NEXT MEETING: February 20, 2027
- PROJECTED STARTERS: Florida: Markström (1-0-0 1.000 / 0.00 1SO) Anaheim: Dostál (1-0-0 .900 / 3.00 0SO)
- PLAYER STATS: Florida / Anaheim
Sunday in the Atlantic (Standings/Panthers Playoff Chances)
- Winnipeg 3, DETROIT 2
Idle: BOS (4P), MTL (3P), OTT (2P), BUF (2P), TBL (2P), TOR (2P)