Overview
- Jesper Boqvist batted in the third-period winner after Mackie Samoskevich’s setup, with A.J. Greer and Carter Verhaeghe also scoring as Florida outshot Chicago 37-19.
- Captain Aleksander Barkov is expected to miss seven to nine months following knee surgery and Matthew Tkachuk is not due back before December with a torn adductor.
- Sergei Bobrovsky made 18 saves for Florida, while former Panthers goalie Spencer Knight impressed in his return for Chicago with 34 stops.
- Panthers general manager Bill Zito downplayed three-peat talk, saying the club is treating this as a new season despite the back-to-back titles.
- Elsewhere on ESPN’s opening-night slate, the Penguins beat the Rangers 3-0 behind two Justin Brazeau goals and an Arturs Silovs shutout, and the Avalanche topped the Kings 4-1 as Nathan MacKinnon became Colorado’s all-time points leader.