The Ottawa Senators are back in action Saturday night in Sunrise, visiting the Florida Panthers to close out their season-opening two-game Florida road trip. In fact, all 32 NHL teams will be in action on Saturday, one of only two times that will happen all season.
The Sens opened 2025-26 with a 5–4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, led by Shane Pinto, Artem Zub, and captain Brady Tkachuk, who each had three points.
Head coach Travis Green is expecting another tough battle against the Panthers, who are known as much for their toughness as their skill. But in a conversation with the media today, Green made sure they knew the full meaning of NHL toughness.
"I think when you talk about team toughness, it's not just fighting," Green said. "It's being physical, it's being hard on pucks, it's paying attention to details, it's sprinting through your shifts. A lot of things go into it. You look at the best teams in the league, and they have a lot of those qualities.
"So we're trying to become one of those teams, and we're playing two teams on this trip that have played a lot of meaningful games, and they understand what it takes to win."
Green isn’t tinkering with success, opting to keep the same lineup intact for Game No. 2. That means newcomer Jordan Spence will once again watch from the press box, Drake Batherson will get another game to heal up, and Linus Ullmark will get the start in goal for the second straight night.
Ottawa Senators Projected Lineup
Forwards
Brady Tkachuk — Tim Stützle — Fabian Zetterlund
David Perron — Dylan Cozens — Michael Amadio
Ridly Greig — Shane Pinto — Claude Giroux
Nick Cousins — Lars Eller — Kurtis MacDermid
Defense
Jake Sanderson — Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot — Nick Jensen
Donovan Sebrango — Nikolas Matinpalo
Goaltenders
Linus Ullmark
Leevi Meriläinen
Scratched: Jordan Spence, Kurtis MacDermid Injured: Drake Batherson (undisclosed), Tyler Kleven (undisclosed)
Along with a threepeat, the Panthers will be looking to sweep their three-game season-opening homestand. They defeated Chicago and Philadelphia earlier in the week.
Related:
Paul Maurice On Last Year's Senators: They Accepted That 'This Isn't Just A Skill Show'
Game Day: Senators Face A Banged-Up But Still Excellent Florida Panther Team
Belleville Senators Sign Left Shot Defenseman, Veteran Of Over 250 NHL Games
Florida Panthers Projected Lineup
Forwards
Eetu Luostarinen — Anton Lundell — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Sam Bennett — Brad Marchand
Mackie Samoskevich — Evan Rodrigues — Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer — Luke Kunin — Jonah Gadjovich
Defense
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola — Seth Jones
Uvis Balinskis — Jeff Petry
Goaltenders
Sergei Bobrovsky
Danill Tarasov
Scratched: Cole Schwindt, Noah Gregor
Injured: Aleksander Barkov (knee), Matthew Tkachuk (lower body), Tomas Nosek (knee), Dmitry Kulikov (upper body)
Face off is 7 pm on Sportsnet 1.