Verhaeghe logged four goals to give him 40 on the season while Lyon notched his first NHL shutout Saturday in Columbus
The Florida Panthers put on a show Saturday night in central Ohio.
It’s not often a hockey team scores a touchdown, but that’s just what the Panthers did, defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-0 to move back into a coveted Wild Card spot.
The win was huge for Florida, and a couple Panthers players had milestone nights in the process.
We’ll start with Carter Verhaeghe.
He recorded his third career hat trick in the first 26:34 of the game, later adding a fourth goal for good measure.
Only one other player in Panthers franchise history had logged a 40-goal season, and that was perhaps the best pure goal scorer to ever put on a Florida sweater: Pavel Bure.
Over 20 years later, Florida has another speedy winger lighting the lamp at a rate unlike any others that this franchise has seen.
“It's kind of cool the score 40 goals in the NHL,” Verhaeghe said with a smile. “You don't really dream of 40 goals, you just dream of making it. It was a pretty special night for sure.”
The 27-year-old is in his third season with the Panthers. His goal and point totals have gone up year over year, but this season he’s taking things to another level entirely.
In four NHL seasons he’s scored nine, 18, 24 and now 40 goals, and his point totals have gone from 13 to 36 to 55 last season to this year’s total of 70 points in 76 games so far.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to think Verhaeghe is going to keep getting better.
“I think there's another level he can get to,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice.
Verhaeghe is in the first year of a three-year extension he signed during the summer of 2021.
He’s locked in through the 2024-25 season with an average annual value (AAV) of just $4.1 million.
To call that a contract bargain would be a gross understatement.
It isn’t only scoring goals that Verhaeghe does well for Florida. He’s hustles just as hard in the Panthers zone as he does when hunting for offense on the other side of the ice.
He’s quietly becoming of the most well-rounded players in the NHL.
“Some goal scorers are hard to convince to do the other things, and he's not,” said Maurice. “He's willing to work hard, he's willing to battle on the boards and improve on his game.”
It’s hard to argue against that when looking at how Verhaeghe has been incredibly consistent as a 200-foot player while finding a way to steadily improve in the scoring department.
When the time comes for Verharghe to reach that next level, whatever it may be, you can expect him to stay humble when he gets there.
"I have no idea, sometimes you just shoot it and it goes in," he said of his four-goal game. "I had a couple really good passes from guys, a couple open nets and shot the puck in the net.”
Not to take anything away from Verhaeghe’s amazing achievements, but another modest man reached a major milestone during Florida’s resounding win over the Blue Jackets.
Alex Lyon, the 30-year-old AHL veteran, picked up his first National Hockey League shutout in his 25th NHL start.
He made 21 saves in the victory, and though there wasn’t a high volume of shots for him to face, there were several high-danger opportunities that required Lyon to come up with more than a few above-average saves.
“I wish I could be super humble, but it actually does feel pretty good.,” Lyon admitted. “It's just one of those things that I've always wanted, and I just never knew that the opportunity would present itself.”
Lyon has become as big a savior of Florida’s season as Verhaeghe or Matthew Tkachuk or anyone else on the roster.
With the Panthers’ season on the line and facing must-win games in three very hostile buildings, Lyon stepped up and delivered win after win after win.
He was put into a similar situation back in January and went 3-2-1. This time around the Lyon King is only leaving the cage with victories and goose eggs.
He stood on his head during a comeback win over the Maple Leafs before providing steady, consistent goaltending in wins over Montreal and Columbus.
Starting three games in four nights, all in different cities, Lyon stopped 77 of the 81 shots thrown his way and delivered Florida three of the team’s most important wins of the season.
“It feels good, and gives me a lot of confidence, honestly, just to know that it’s within my grasp,” Lyon said. “Try not to think too much, just keep the same approach going forward and just keep playing hockey. That's it.”
It’s unknown if Lyon will be called back into action this season.
Sergei Bobrovsky has been out all week with a non-COVID illness. Exactly what the illness is or how long it’s been bothering him is not known.
What is known is that Bobrovsky gave up 13 goals on 94 shots (.878 save percentage) over his last three starts, all losses.
Florida has five games left on its schedule. The way Lyon has been playing, and how the team is performing in front of him, it might be worth considering keeping him in net for another game or two.
“He's brought a little bit of joy into our room,” Maurice said.
The Panthers are back in action on Tuesday when they host the Buffalo Sabres at FLA Live Arena.