SUNRISE, Fla. — Carter Verhaeghe is the same 26 years old as Aleksander Barkov, but made his minor-league debut seven years ago when Barkov was on his third stellar season with the Florida Panthers.
He’s the same age as Aaron Ekblad. But Ekblad was a rising star in his second Panthers season six years ago, when Verhaeghe had such trouble getting ice time with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers he split time with another lower-level minor-league team, the Missouri Mavericks.
This is important to understand the smile Verhaeghe was trying mightily to turn off Wednesday night after the Panthers beat Washington in Game 5 of their playoff series 5-3. Verhaeghe was traded, ignored, doubted, demoted and forgotten for years in the manner careers often stall out and dreams die.
Now he was celebrated.
He changed the Panthers series with Washington. Him. Almost alone. He scored four goals and had three assists in Games 4 and 5 to create seven of the Panthers’ last eight goals and inspire two dramatic comebacks.
“He’s been the best player on the ice the last two games,’’ Florida Panthers teammate Patric Hornqvist said of Verhaeghe’s four goals and three assists in Games 4 and 5 against Washington. “His speed, his taking pucks to the net. He’s making it tough for [Washington]. We needed it.”
Tell that to his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, who threw him in a six-player trade when he was in junior hockey, or the New York Islanders, who traded him to Tampa Bay for minor-league goalie, Kristers Gudlevskis, who played in three NHL games in his career.
“He was relentless all night,’’ interim Panthers coach Andrew Brunette said. “That’s how he plays. He was on it [Wednesday night.]”
Tell that to those who didn’t believe as he set the Syracuse Crunch scoring record and then made his NHL debut at age 24. Barkov was in his seventh season then, Ekblad his sixth.
“I was just trying to make the NHL,’’ Verhaeghe said. “I thought I could do it. You never dream of [a night like] this. You’re just trying to take small steps, focus on the process.”
Everyone has a different journey, and Verhaeghe’s was a longer way than some teammates he now stars beside. The Panthers are his fourth organization.
Tampa Bay didn’t trade him for lack of appreciation, though. It was lack of need. They’ve won the past two Stanley Cups with the kind of talented roster that didn’t have salary-cap room to pay Verhaeghe.
General Manager Bill Zito saw the talent, pulled the trigger, and there was Verhaeghe scoring the game-winner in Game 4 against Washington.
There he was with the Panthers down 3-0 Wednesday putting in a rebound off a Barkov shot to give them a toehold back into the night.
“It’s getting that goal,” Hornqvist said. “Washington had the game before that. After that goal, I think we took over.”
“We kind of took over in the second [period],” Verhaeghe said.
After two assists that helped tie the game, Verhaeghe’s second goal in the third period became his second-straight game-winner. On a two-on-one break, he buried a Barkov pass to put the Panthers up 4-3.
The series is now in the Panthers hands, up 3-2, as it moves to Washington for Game 6. The Panthers, who haven’t won a playoff series since 1996, still aren’t playing their top-seeded game for long stretches, though.
They’re 0-for-16 on power plays — a boggling stat for a team that ranked fifth in the regular season. They’re still talking about feeling the pressure of the playoffs just as after each of the previous games.
“A little tightness,’’ Brunette said of their early play on Wednesday. And: “A bit of nerves.”
“We don’t need to be down 3-0 to play this way,’’ he said. “We’re close. I’ve said this the whole series. But we’re close. I think when they make a play it will be liberating. It’ll clear them up a little bit.”
As Hornqvist said: “We were the best-skating team in the regular season, and now Washington’s slowed us down a little.”
They haven’t slowed Verghaeghe. It’s his third NHL season to Barkov’s ninth or Ekblad’s eighth. Jonathan Huberdeau, just two years older at 28, is in his 10th Panthers season.
Sometimes the journey underscores the appreciation. Verhaeghe was asked about his game and talked about the team. That’s the hockey way. There’s no, ‘I,” in Verhaeghe, after all.
But that smile he allowed, that look of joy for his play the past two games, spoke of minor-league bus rides, being forgotten by teams and, finally, having his moment.
