Ottawa Senators vs Florida Panthers 21 October 2026 Prediction

Atlantic Division rivals Ottawa and Florida meet in Ontario with 12 points apiece through nine games. The Senators have won just one of their last three, while the Panthers have won three straight. Brady Tkachuk will play in Ottawa as a Panther for the first time after serving as the Senators’ captain for the past five seasons.

Ottawa's Scoring and Special Teams

Ottawa has won three of its last five games but lost 3-1 at Philadelphia in its most recent outing. Travis Green’s team averages 2.7 goals per game and has scored on 10.9% of its shots on goal, putting it near the bottom of the league in both categories. The Senators allowed a power-play goal against the Flyers and have killed 79.4% of opposing power plays this season. Their own power play has converted at a 12.8% rate.

Ottawa has won six of nine games this season, with Linus Ullmark in net for every win. Ullmark leads the league with a .945 save percentage and has a 1.33 goals-against average.

Ottawa Senators Predicted Lineup: Ullmark (Ersson) — Sanderson, Zub — Foegele, Stützle, Giroux

Other Players on the Roster: Defensemen — Kleven, Spence, Matinpalo, Yakemchuk; forwards — Burakovsky, Cozens, Batherson, Cousins, Pinto, Amadio, Zetterlund, Halliday, Greig

Unavailable: MacDermid and Eklund (injured); Chabot (questionable)

Manager: Travis Green

Florida's Three-Game Winning Streak

Florida has won three straight games, averaging six goals over that stretch. The Panthers beat Seattle 8-3 at home in their last game, outshooting the Kraken 37-23. Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe each scored three goals. Florida became the first team in NHL history to record three natural hat tricks across three consecutive games. The Panthers scored twice on the power play against Seattle and have converted 20.9% of their power plays this season under Paul Maurice.

Florida allows 22.8 shots on goal per game, a top-five mark in the league. The Panthers also lead the NHL in hits, averaging nearly 32 per game.

Florida Panthers Predicted Lineup: Markstrom (Schmid) — Forsling, Ekblad — B. Tkachuk, Bennett, M. Tkachuk

Other Players on the Roster: Defensemen — Mikkola, Jones, Kulikov, Balinskis; forwards — Verhaeghe, Reinhart, Eller, Luostarinen, Lundell, Vilmanis, Reinhardt, Schwindt, Hathaway

Unavailable: Gadjovich; Barkov and Marchand (injured); Gudas (questionable)

Manager: Paul Maurice

Last Season's Matchups

Florida won three of four meetings last season, scoring six goals in two of those wins. Ottawa took the most recent matchup 5-1 behind two goals from Fabian Zetterlund and 22 saves on 23 shots from Ullmark.

Key Stats

Ottawa has taken at least one minor penalty in the first period in seven of its nine games.

Florida averages 28.3 shots on goal per game, above the NHL average.

Ottawa generates 2.6 expected goals per game, one of the league’s lowest marks.

Ottawa Senators vs Florida Panthers Prediction: Ottawa Senators Moneyline at 1.89

Main prediction: Ottawa has won three of four home games this season, allowing more than two goals just once. Florida has lost three of its last five road games. The Senators have also won three of the last four meetings in Ottawa by a combined score of 13-5. The pick is Ottawa Senators moneyline at 1.89. Predicted score: 4-3.

Goals prediction: At least six goals have been scored in three of the last four meetings. Florida’s last four games have averaged 8.3 regulation goals, while Ottawa’s last two home games have produced 11 regulation goals combined. The pick is over 5.5 goals at 1.86.