Tkachuk-Bennett-Verhaeghe: Inside NHL’s most dangerous line

SUNRISE, Fla. — The road of Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe encapsulates every little thing that makes the Florida Panthers so dominant within the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The three gamers relentlessly forecheck opponents. Their offensive talent is elite, as they’re three of the highest 4 scorers throughout the Panthers’ postseason run. They’ll shut down opponents, averaging 1.98 targets towards per 60 minutes of play at 5-on-5. Because of Tkachuk and Bennett, they’re uniquely antagonistic, dishing it out and taking it, after which dispensing some extra.

That mixture of attributes makes them maybe probably the most harmful line within the playoffs. They may very well be the top-scoring trio on any workforce. Or a workforce’s checking line. Or its most annoying pests.

“It’s a deadly combination, all over the ice,” Florida winger Brad Marchand mentioned.

Lethal for opponents. Enjoyable for Tkachuk.

“It’s fun when we’re getting in on the forecheck and finishing hits and playing in their zone and getting good scoring chances,” he mentioned after the Panthers’ 6-2 win in Sport 3 towards the Hurricanes, placing them one win from a 3rd straight journey to the Stanley Cup Ultimate. “I thought the building was electric. I credit my linemates for how they played, getting [the fans] going.”

Via 15 playoff video games, this line has earned 65.4% of the shot makes an attempt when on the ice at 5-on-5 and 57% of the anticipated targets. The trio is averaging 4.6 targets per 60 minutes, and its 70% goals-for proportion ranks third within the playoffs amongst groups that superior previous the primary spherical.

Since Verhaeghe bounces between traces within the common season, there’s not been the chance for the followers or Panthers gamers to formally identify this line. Among the many solutions on social media — some extra cynical than others — had been “The Rat Pack,” the “Elbow Grease Line” and the “Immunity Line,” in reference to how they’re in a position to keep away from NHL self-discipline whereas taking part in on the sting.

“We are kind of a line that can do everything,” Bennett mentioned. “Chucky likes to hold pucks down low, he likes to slow the game down a little bit. Then, Carter is speeding the game up, he’s using his speed, he’s heavy and fast. Then, I’m kind of a mix of that. It’s just a line that we’ve found has been effective in the playoffs. I love playing with both of those guys.”

Three components, three gamers and all of them bringing one thing totally different to the dominance.

“The diversity in style is actually a good thing for us,” Florida coach Paul Maurice mentioned.

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Sam Bennett: “Definition of a playoff player”

Bennett, 28, was acquired by the Panthers from Calgary in April 2021. Tkachuk was with the Flames at that time. He wasn’t thrilled in regards to the commerce.

“He’s always had the talent. He’s always had the work ethic. He’s always had the bite, the jam, everything,” Tkachuk mentioned. “I think a lot of his success has to do with opportunity. He didn’t get the opportunity in Calgary that he has here. I don’t know why that is.”

What Tkachuk has seen from Bennett in Florida is somebody he believes is “the definition of a playoff player.” Bennett has 43 factors in 54 video games over the previous three postseasons, whereas taking part in a bodily model that has, now and again, crossed the road into unlawful and injurious.

Or as Marchand put it: “He’s got a good right hook.”

Bennett appeared to sucker-punch Marchand throughout the Panthers’ playoff collection win over the Boston Bruins in 2024. It knocked Marchand out of the collection for 2 video games and did not end in additional self-discipline for Bennett.

On the commerce deadline in 2025, they grew to become teammates.

“I didn’t hold a grudge. Again, I know how this game’s played. I played a similar way,” Marchand mentioned. “It’s something that we joke about. I can laugh it off. I joke about it all the time. I joke about it more than he does, but I definitely joke about it.”

However Bennett has jokes. That is one thing Marchand did not anticipate earlier than attending to know him.

“He’s not as serious of a person as I thought he was. When you see him on the ice and you see him kind of around the media, he just seemed like he was quiet and very reserved. Once you get to know him, he’s actually pretty vocal and really funny and a good guy to be around,” Marchand mentioned. “But when you see him on the ice, he’s so intense. He doesn’t really chirp. You don’t hear him during the game. He’s all business.”

Marchand and Maurice praised Bennett’s pace and shot, however Marchand was particularly enamored together with his truculence.

“He brings a physical aspect to the game that, especially this time of year, you can’t have enough of it,” Marchand mentioned of Bennett. “Those are the guys that make a huge impact on the game, when you have to be aware of them physically on the ice and know where they’re at.”

Marchand would know.

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Carter Verhaeghe: “Shows up in the big games”

Verhaeghe, 29, signed as a free agent with the Panthers in 2020 after profitable a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay within the earlier season. He has develop into one in all Florida’s largest postseason heroes, bettering when the common season ends. Over the previous 4 playoff runs for the Panthers, Verhaeghe has 11 game-winning targets. Nobody else has greater than six.

“He’s a guy that really shows up in the big games,” Bennett mentioned.

Model 1.0 of this line final season was very efficient, too; Bennett and Tkachuk skating with winger Evan Rodrigues, one of many Panthers with the strongest analytics. However Rodrigues would not have the offensive recreation of Verhaeghe, who has a 0.90 points-per-game common over his previous 70 postseason video games.

Verhaeghe break up his time final postseason between Bennett’s line and skating with captain Aleksander Barkov. Maurice was snug transferring round Verhaeghe previously. This season, he could not discover the fitting time to pair Verhaeghe with Barkov and have it stick.

“I got it wrong the entire year. The first two years, I thought I was really smart. Every time I changed it, the lines take off,” Maurice mentioned. “This year, I was a dumbass.”

Although Maurice could not stick to Barkov, Verhaeghe actually clicked with Bennett and Tkachuk within the playoffs

“I think our line works because we all kind of bring a different element to the line. We read off each other really well,” Verhaeghe mentioned. “Chucky makes really good plays, so smart, so physical. Benny’s the same thing, kind of makes plays so fast up the middle. We just stay on pucks, like to be close together.”

With Bennett and Tkachuk making house and making performs, Maurice sees Verhaeghe because the one who can money in on the probabilities they create.

“It’s Carter’s speed and his release, and all of their ability to jump on broken plays,” Maurice mentioned.

Verhaeghe is a reputation acquainted to any NHL fan who has watched the playoffs previously few seasons. Bennett is gaining notoriety by way of memorable acts — ask a Toronto Maple Leafs fan about his collision with Anthony Stolarz — in addition to his play for Staff Canada within the 4 Nations Face-Off and impending unrestricted free company, the place he is anticipated to double the common annual worth of his contract.

However neither of them has been a guest on “The Tonight Show.”

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Matthew Tkachuk: “He’s a wonderful human being”

Tkachuk is a celebrity. That was true when the Panthers traded star winger Jonathan Huberdeau and prime defenseman MacKenzie Weegar for him in 2022, earlier than inking him to an eight-year, $76 million contract extension.

That was true throughout Tkachuk’s efficiency in 2023, main the Panthers in a stunning first-round upset of Boston and thru the Jap Convention playoffs earlier than struggling a damaged sternum within the Stanley Cup Ultimate towards Vegas.

That was true final postseason, when Tkachuk had 22 factors in 24 video games after which took the Stanley Cup for a swim within the Atlantic Ocean. And that was true on the 4 Nations Face-Off, when he and his brother created a sensation by dropping the gloves towards Canada.

Tkachuk and Bennett have been companions on the ice for a number of seasons, establishing a second dominant line behind Barkov’s trio.

“He and Sam have similarities. They’re fearless in how they play. And then they’re exact opposites,” Maurice mentioned. “But that’s truly how they complement each other.”

Tkachuk has 14 factors in 15 video games this postseason, which tells solely a part of the story. He has been his antagonistic self on and off the ice, like when he slammed a ball towards a wall repeatedly throughout a Hurricanes information convention in Raleigh, with the media space separated from the Panthers’ exercise space solely by a curtain. And like when he slammed Carolina’s Sebastian Aho to the ice in Sport 3 after Aho had taken out Panthers ahead Sam Reinhart with a success in Sport 2.

“I don’t really look at it as intent or intimidation at all. It’s just sticking up for teammates,” mentioned Tkachuk, who was given a roughing penalty and a 10-minute misconduct. “We’re a family in there. It could happen to anybody, and there’s probably 20 guys racing to be the guy to stick up for a teammate like that. That’s just how our team’s built. That’s why we’re successful. I don’t think any of us would be thrilled at that play in Game 2.”

After the sport, the Hurricanes lamented not retaliating to the retaliation, worrying that Tkachuk would have gotten an opponent to take the bait once more.

“They’re very good at goading you into penalties,” Carolina’s Taylor Corridor mentioned.

It is irritating, for certain. However Tkachuk has that impact on individuals. Even his coach.

“I hated Matthew when I was in Winnipeg,” mentioned Maurice, who coached the Jets from 2013 to 2022. “And then you meet him and you go, ‘Oh my God, he’s a wonderful human being.'”

Maurice shared a narrative from after Sport 3, when one of many Panthers invited a younger fan who was battling most cancers to the locker room space together with his mother and father. Tkachuk left the workforce’s postgame celebration to say hey and chat with him.

“You need to see that because that’s real,” Maurice mentioned.

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ON-ICE PERSONAS might be a lot totally different than these away from competitors. Maurice additionally factors to “Benny’s Buddies,” a program that Sam Bennett launched with the Humane Society of Broward County. Each time he scores a purpose, it raises cash towards overlaying pet adoption charges.

“They’re really, really nice people. Then, the puck drops,” Maurice mentioned of his Panthers. “They’re hard on guys. They are. And most of that is driven by how they feel about each other. They don’t want to let the other guy down.”

Marchand mentioned that there is a duality to hockey gamers. Their actions on the ice outline them in public, within the media and reputationally across the league. However once they share a locker room, once they’re not opponents however teammates like him and Bennett, there’s an individual you meet who’s at odds with the one on the ice.

“I think it’s just this respect we have for each other, understanding that what we do on the ice is our job. We’re competing for the same goal,” Marchand mentioned. “At the end of the day, you’re willing to do things on the ice that aren’t typical of you as a person off the ice.”

Maurice, as he does, in contrast this duality with — of all issues — shotgunning a beer in church.

“Have you ever shotgunned a beer? Have you ever been to church? Would you shotgun a beer if you’re in church? No, and that doesn’t make you a hypocrite,” he mentioned. “There’s a context for all things.”

Inside any context, Bennett, Tkachuk and Verhaeghe are one of many NHL’s most compelling trios — and an engine driving the Panthers to doubtlessly repeat as champions.