The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Panthers make history in wild October

The Florida Panthers made NHL history by scoring five hat tricks in October across their first 14 games of the 2026-27 season. Brady Tkachuk led the surge with consecutive natural hat tricks, followed by dual hat tricks from Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett against Seattle, and Anton Lundell's first career three-goal game on October 30.

Despite their offensive output, Ryan Gagne reports that goaltending concerns and injuries have complicated the start of the season. Netminder Jacob Markström has dealt with multiple injuries, thrusting Akira Schmid into heavy action, while key forwards Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand have each been limited to just two appearances due to lower-body injuries.