‘Every player on the ice has a 10-minute misconduct’: Panthers, Senators combine for 167 penalty minutes in chippy affair 

Perhaps it’s not just Saturday nights that are alright for fighting.

The Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators combined for 167 penalty minutes in the Panthers’ 5-0 win in Ottawa on Monday night.

The physical play got extra feisty at the very end of the second period, with both Brady and Matthew Tkachuk on the ice in a scrum between the two teams, resulting in Matthew and Senators’ defenseman Travis Hamonic starting the third period in the penalty box for roughing minors.

Five minutes into the third period, Senators’ forward Zack MacEwen went after the Panthers’ Tkachuk brother when he took a shot at Hamonic. MacEwen was awarded a match penalty (served by Dominik Kubalik) and was ejected from the game.

Things got even more chippy midway through the third when Matthew squared up with Senators’ defenseman Jake Sanderson in front of the Panthers net. It was a quick scrap, but both landed a few shots.

Just two minutes later, after serving a two-minute minor for cross-checking, Brady came in on a breakaway and got a shot off before bumping into Panthers’ goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. All five Panthers responded, which led to the other four Senators responding, which led to all hell breaking loose.

The ice was littered with gloves and sticks before emotions settled. With only 7:22 left in the game and the score being 4-0, referees Garrett Rank and Mitch Dunning decided to award all 10 skaters on the ice — Brady, Hamonic, Erik Brannstrom, Rourke Chartier, Drake Batherson, Dmitry Kulikov, Ryan Lomberg, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Kevin Stenlund and Jonah Gadjovich — with 10-minute misconducts.

Panthers' forward Sam Bennett and Senators' forward Matthieu Joseph earned a pair of misconducts for themselves a few minutes later, bringing the total number of misconducts awarded to 13.

The 167 penalty minutes awarded were the most for a single game in 2023-24. The two teams also had the most penalty minutes in a single game in 2022-23, when they combined for 166 penalty minutes on April 6, 2023. The Panthers won that game 7-2.