Brady scores in his Ottawa return, Senators rout Panthers 5-1

Senators 5, Panthers 1. Brady got his goal in Ottawa and the Senators got everything else, because the cats spent the night chasing a grudge match instead of playing the hockey game in front of them.

How it went

The building booed Brady Tkachuk from warmups onward and tossed his old jerseys on the ice late, and he answered the way he usually does. Garnet Hathaway drew a tripping call on Artem Zub, and nine seconds into the power play Brady buried the opener at 10:00 of the first, from Matthew Tkachuk and Seth Jones.

That lead lasted 4:13: Radko Gudas went off for cross-checking at 12:45, and Tim Stützle punished the infraction with a power-play equalizer at 14:13.

The second period is where it got away. Claude Giroux made it 2-1 at 9:34 and Shane Pinto made it 3-1 at 17:18, both at even strength, while Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkola and Matthew Tkachuk all took minors and Sam Bennett added a slash with 17 seconds left.

The third period was more of the same, as Bennett and Ridly Greig fought at 2:17, Warren Foegele scored at 7:58, and Stephen Halliday finished it at 14:57. Ottawa outshot Florida 30-19 overall.

Three things from Ottawa:

1. They took the bait. Florida took 12 minors, two fighting majors and a misconduct, 44 penalty minutes by our count of the sheet. Only one Ottawa goal came on the power play, so the real casualty was Florida's offensive rhythm. Sam Reinhart finished with zero shots in 15:54, and the whole team managed 19 shots all night.

2. Akira Schmid deserved better. With Jacob Markstrom injured, Schmid got the start and made 25 saves on 30 shots. Four of the five goals came at five-on-five, and the defense pairs left him exposed too often. Mikkola, Gudas and Dmitry Kulikov all finished minus-2.

3. The Tkachuks kept producing through the noise. Brady had the goal, three shots and six hits in 13:13 of ice time. Matthew's assist extended his point streak to nine games, by our count of NHL data, and Seth Jones now has a point in five consecutive games. The problem wasn't the stars; it was the supporting cast around them.

Ferda play of the night:

Bokondji Imama, five seconds after Brady's goal. Imama dropped the gloves with Hayden Hodgson at 10:05 of the first, in an arena that spent the entire evening antagonizing his teammate. It's a 7:19 night on the stat sheet, but it's also the kind of shift that tells a hostile barn the boys aren't getting pushed around.

Pabs' read

I've watched this team lose in a lot of different ways since the inaugural season, and this is the one that bothers me most: losing the plot. The rat year team got under everybody's skin and kept skating. Tonight the cats let Ottawa dictate the terms, and the Senators were delighted to play that game at five-on-five.

The moneyline closed at -110 both ways, basically a coin flip, and Florida lost by four. They didn't cover the +1.5, and six goals went over a total of 5.5. (21+. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.)

At 5-3-2, this is one ugly night after three consecutive victories, not a worrying pattern. But fighting majors and roughing minors don't count in the standings.

Next game

There's no time to stew, because the Panthers visit Pittsburgh on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. ET on Scripps, the second half of a back-to-back. Watch who starts in net, and whether Florida keeps its composure for a full 60 minutes.