In the Stanley Cup Final for a 3rd time in 5 years, Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe keeps scoring goals

By STEPHEN WHYNO (AP Hockey Writer)SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sure, Corey Perry is in the Stanley Cup Final for a fourth time in five years, but he lost his three previous trips.Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe is there for a third time in that span and has a ring to show for it, from 2020 as a rookie with Tampa Bay. It’s no coincidence he keeps scoring big goals for the Panthers, now three wins from a championship, and he appreciates each one because of his long road to even reach the NHL.“I always had the drive to kind of get better, and I knew I had the talent and I think it just took a little longer for me,” Verhaeghe said. “It took a long time to get here. I think no path is straight, and I think for me it definitely hasn’t been straight. I’ve definitely been to a lot of different places, and everywhere I went I tried to take from that experience and kind of learn from my experience of where I’ve been and try to get better.”Verhaeghe seems to be at his best when it matters most. He scored the first and eventual winning goal in Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night, his team-leading 10th of the playoffs.“He is definitely an elite player, he has elite speed and goal-scoring ability and he works on it every single day,” captain Aleksander Barkov said. “He has a goal-scoring mindset where he wants to shoot the puck, and he knows how to shoot it. He’s been working on it every single day. That’s why he’s had success.”Coach Paul Maurice, whose 1,849 regular-season games are the second only to Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman, admires the difficult path it took Verhaeghe to get here. A 2013 third-round pick of his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, he spent four seasons bouncing around the minors between the American Hockey League and the ECHL.Skating was an issue, so he worked on that and took it from a weakness to a strength. Verhaeghe improved it to the point that he made his NHL debut with the Lightning in 2019.Since then, he has 169 points in 330 regular-season games and 52 in 63 in the playoffs.“He is an unusual performer, that man,” Maurice said. “He is so good in the most intense and almost chaotic play. He can raise that level.”It did not come naturally. Verhaeghe was drafted as a playmaking center and is now a scoring winger.“I had to figure out my game a little bit,” he said. “I had to evolve.”Expected top pick Celebrini chats with 2015 No. 1 choice at Stanley Cup FinalNine years after meeting Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews during the Stanley Cup Final in Chicago, Connor McDavid got to pay it forward Monday in his first appearance in the series.McDavid visited with Macklin Celebrini, the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL draft, and other top prospects after the Edmonton Oilers’ morning skate in preparation for Game 2 against the Florida Panthers.“Seem like some great kids,” McDavid said. “They said they had fun at the combine, which we were surprised at. But yeah, it’s an exciting time for them.”McDavid and Celebrini met before, at a summer hockey camp last year and at a game in Edmonton. Celebrini, the Vancouver native, was in attendance for the Oilers’ Game 7 victory against his hometown Canucks earlier in the playoffs.Hoping McDavid didn’t see him cheering against him that night, Celebrini appreciated another chance to chat with the three-time league MVP, whose position he’d love to be in someday.“It was awesome to talk to him, especially on a big gameday,” said Celebrini, who figures to have his name called by the San Jose Sharks to kick off the draft at the Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28. “Hopefully in the future I’m playing in the Stanley Cup Final, so I really hope so.”Celebrini was joined by Cayden Lindstrom, Artyom Levshunov and Zeev Buium, who are also expected to be taken among the first several picks. As for advice, McDavid — taken first by the Oilers in the 2015 draft coincidentally held at the Panthers arena — kept it simple.“It doesn’t really matter where you’re picked,” he said. “Those kids will all be in the top five. But it doesn’t really matter where you’re drafted. That’s just the start.

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