FOOT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Sit down with Carter Verhaeghe and you’d never know that the modest, lean professional athlete is one of the most important hockey players in recent memory.
The boy barely has visible calves.
When a reporter made that observation to Paul Maurice recently, the Florida Panthers coach nearly choked on laughter and made the reporter promise not to attribute those words to him in any way.
But he didn’t disagree with the premise that it’s amazing that someone with a build like Verhaeghe plays with such incredible pace and, frankly, determination every night.
“You would do well to be surprised to see a game and then meet him, because he is very strong,” Maurice said. “The closest thing I thought was actually (Hall of Famer and current Oilers assistant coach) Paul Coffey. And Carter is a little thinner than Paul. But Paul’s legs didn’t give the impression that he should be as fast as he is.
“I do not know how to explain it. (Verhaeghe) is (that fast).”
Verhaeghe is the Panthers’ all-time leader with 25 playoff goals and of the Panthers’ 30 playoff wins over the last three years, he has 10 game-winning goals.
So it was no surprise that Verhaeghe’s opening goal in the Stanley Cup Final on Florida’s first shot Saturday night was the eventual winner thanks to a 32-save shutout by Sergei Bobrovsky. It was Verhaeghe’s 10th goal of the playoffs, one shy of Matthew Tkachuk’s team record, and the 13th go-ahead goal of his career, the most among NHL players since 2021. He became the sixth player to in NHL history and third in the last 95 years, to score the game-winning goal in each of his franchise’s first two Stanley Cup Final victories.
Verhaeghe continues to thrive in a playoff environment, thanks to a very nice cross-field pass from Barkov. pic.twitter.com/tr36kpyIrO
—Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) June 9, 2024
“A lot of it is reading the game very well,” Tkachuk said. “You have to be in the right positions. You have to think very well about the game. He does all that, and then he has the skill and the shot. I know it wasn’t a crazy shot on goal, but he’s one of the few guys in the league who can score from distance and from places that only the rest of us can’t score. “Very talented player, very intelligent.”
Playing with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, Verhaeghe was part of a line that, despite many chances, kept Connor McDavid off the scoreboard in Game 1. That’s the other thing about Verhaeghe: as many accolades as Barkov, twice Selke Trophy. Winner, and Reinhart receives for being a pain in the backfield away from the puck, Verhaeghe is also responsible on defense.
“We have a lot of unique guys and he is absolutely the example of being unique,” Maurice said. “It doesn’t seem like he should be as strong as he is. He is so wiry with the puck and he is a player that you could say, with that build, he would be on the perimeter or in the holes only and in open ice. There he does not stand out, there he accelerates and he is as good there as in traffic.”
The comment about the calves circulated within the Florida locker room. Veteran Kyle Okposo heard it and made sure Verhaeghe knew it too.
The winger with five overtime playoff winners was amused, probably because he knows it was a compliment.
“I don’t know almost anything about the science of someone’s body, but I think he has that quick-changing muscle fiber,” veteran defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “So, he’s flying around and that doesn’t necessarily mean he has big muscles, but they’re tight in a sense where he’s just moving quickly up all over the ice.
“His clutch gene that he has is strong and you see it when he comes out of the tunnel to do overtime. He’s smiling, just enjoying the opportunity and optimistic about what he can do. So he goes out there, scores big goals and does things for us that we expect him to do.”
GO DEEPER
Mr. Clutch: How Carter Verhaeghe’s long road to the Panthers taught him not to fear the moment
In 2021, when the Winnipeg Jets were swept in the second round by the Montreal Canadiens, Maurice retired. His routine after being ejected is to never watch hockey for the rest of the postseason because he’s so down, but he’ll always come back and watch the Stanley Cup champion’s games.
So after Tampa Bay won the Cup, Maurice came back and watched the Lightning run. He was watching the Panthers-Lightning series and had never heard of Verhaeghe, a player who three years earlier was in the ECHL and someone who had been passed over by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the New York Islanders and, in fact, the Lightning after. win the Cup with them in 2020.
“I’m not looking at it. I’m watching the Tampa Bay Lightning play. And this guy, this Verhaeghe, keeps showing up,” Maurice said. “And, at the end of the series (against Florida) and Tampa Bay is moving on, I have no idea who this guy is. Maybe he’s one of the best players outside of possibly (Andrei) Vasilevskiy in that series and (Nikita) Kucherov on the power play. I think Carter Verhaeghe was the most dominant player in the series and I didn’t know anything about him. And I’ve had that kind of experience with him the whole time I’ve been here.
“He’s incredibly unique and a really interesting person to talk to. What I like most about it is that (assistant coach) Jamie Kompon does most of the team video and then each of our coaches does a lot of individual video. Jamie makes a lot of videos with Carter. And that would be Jamie’s comment to me, (Carter goes on to say) ‘I want to see more videos.’ Carter told Jamie, “I want to get better.” I have to improve.’ I think that’s because of how he got here. It’s a scratch and claw on the East Coast slate all the way. ‘I have to improve. I have to improve.’
“He scored (42) last year and ‘I have to get better.’ “A really unique guy.”
In essence, Maurice calls him “a player,” which is why he doesn’t feel intimidated in big games or big moments.
“He’s definitely an elite player, he has elite speed and goal-scoring ability and he works on it every day,” Barkov said. “There is no surprise in that. He has a goal-scoring mentality, he wants to shoot the puck and he knows how to do it. He’s been working on it every day. That is why he has been successful.”
Verhaeghe has been to the Cup final twice before, once with Tampa Bay and once with Florida. And as all players say, once you win the Cup, you crave it again and again.
Last year, the Panthers were devastated by injuries when they reached the finals against Las Vegas and were further devastated by an injury in the series when Tkachuk broke his sternum. Verhaeghe says the Panthers “ran out of gas.”
“We know what it takes this year and we were very close last year with three wins away,” Verhaeghe said. “We know how challenging it is, the ups and downs of the playoffs and their routine. And I think that makes us more equipped this year.”
A victory and a decisive goal for Verhaeghe.
And if Verhaeghe lifts that Cup again, he’ll likely have more big moments and decisive goals in him.
(Photo: Joel Auerbach//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
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