Meanwhile, this happened ...
One-time IceDogs captain Verhaeghe scores three winning goals, sets Panther records
It was the kind of week an athlete wants never to end.
But Carter Verhaeghe and his teammates are glad it did because it means their Florida Panthers are in the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs for the first time since 1996.
And the 26-year-old winger from Waterdown is one of the main reasons they’re there. The one-time Niagara IceDogs captain got six goals and 12 points to rank second behind only the incomparable Connor McDavid in the Stanley Cup playoff scoring race.
Had McDavid not been so remarkable for the Edmonton Oilers, and had southern Ontario not been so preoccupied by the Toronto Maple Leafs’ demise, yet again, Verhaeghe’s
burst into the post-season spotlight would have been dominant in hockey-circle conversations, especially since he was a former Leaf draftee and was traded away for the brief and forgettable contributions of Michael Grabner.
Last week, Verhaeghe scored the winning goal in all three of Florida’s victories, which helped to overcome the Washington Capitals’ 2-1 series lead. He became just the 12th player in Stanley Cup history to score winners in three straight games. Two of the goals came in overtime, including Game 6, the only time the Panthers have ever won a series-clincher in extra time.
His six goals are a franchise record for a single series, and his five points in Wednesday’s 5-3 victory were also the most ever by a Panther in the post-season. And he’s doing that with significantly less time on the power play than any of the other top 40 Stanley Cup scorers.
“He’s hot right now,” understated his centre Claude Giroux, obtained from Philadelphia in March. “He’s flying out there. And I’m lucky enough to play with him.”
Here’s how Verhaeghe’s week progressed. Last Monday in Washington, with the Panthers down two games to one, he scored the opening goal, then five minutes into overtime he muscled into position to retrieve his own rebound for the 3-2 victory that squared the series and returned home-ice advantage to the Panthers.
Wednesday night in Florida, the Capitals had built a 3-0 lead before Verhaeghe started the comeback with a goal in the seventh minute of the second period. And, with the scored tied 3-3, he stripped a Capital of the puck and on the ensuing rush took a pass from Aleksander Barkov to put Florida ahead for good, its 30th comeback win of the year and sixth in which it trailed by three or more goals.
He also had primary assists on all three of the other goals, by Barkov, Giroux and Patric Hornqvist.
Two days later, Verhaeghe missed the morning skate with a still-undisclosed injury and was a gametime decision.
But he suited up, scored the first goal, then silenced the Capital One Arena crowd by taking Giroux’s pass and backhanding the puck into the net at 2:46 of overtime to avert a seventh game.
Interim Florida head coach Andrew Brunette said Verhaeghe’s teammates were “ecstatic for him.”
“They knew he was not at 100 per cent but he dug in deep and found a way to get it done,” the coach said.
Verhaeghe can put the puck behind goaltenders, put the puck on other scorers’ sticks and drive the net with speed to create space for his linemates. But he has always been very modest about his allround ability — he has, for instance, yet to get back to the newspaper to talk about his incredible week — and usually deflects credit to the larger group.
So we’ll let others speak for him. “He’s been really good for us the whole series, and I just love seeing him do that,” Barkov told NHL.com.
“I’m really happy for him.” Despite spending four-plus seasons in the American Hockey League with Toronto, Syracuse and Bridgeport, and even some time in the lower ECHL, Verhaeghe never gave up, and made the NHL with
Tampa Bay in 2019-20, and contributed two assists to help the Bolts win the 2020 Stanley Cup, which he brought to Waterdown last summer.
Gambling on himself, he signed a two-year free-agency deal with Florida for $1 million (U.S.) per season, and some argue he’s been the NHL’s best value-per-dollar free agent of the past two years with 42 goals in 119 games.
His wager on his own abilities paid off. He begins a three-year extension next year at $4.166 million per year after scoring 24 goals this year.
And now he gets to play the Lightning, his old team, in the much anticipated Battle of Florida which opened Tuesday night with the visiting Lightning winning 4-1. Game 2 was Thursday night, also in Sunrise, Fla.
The Panthers hope Verhaeghe can make the Lightning fans feel exactly the way he made depressed Leafs fans feel last week: that their team should never have let him go.