FIRST GAME SHUTOUT

Acquired at the trade deadline, veteran goaltender Vitek Vanecek made his Panthers debut with a 4-0 shutout against the Buffalo Sabres at home. Vanecek was the third goaltender in team history to have a clean sheet in his debut after Chris Driedger (2019) and Jose Theodore (2011). Vanecek’s shutout came after Sergei Bobrovsky had his own shutout two nights earlier against Columbus as part of a team shutout streak of 186:49, the longest to that point in franchise history. “It was solid,” Bobrovsky said of the team’s recent run of success. “Defensively, we played great. The penalty kill was great. All the ingredients and pieces are there.”