‘It’s a deadly combination’: Why the Tkachuk-Bennett-Verhaeghe line is so dominant
-
Greg Wyshynski
SUNRISE, Fla. — The line of Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe encapsulates everything that makes the Florida Panthers so dominant in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The three players relentlessly forecheck opponents. Their offensive skill is elite, as they’re three of the top four scorers during the Panthers’ postseason run. They can shut down opponents, averaging 1.98 goals against per 60 minutes of play at 5-on-5. Thanks to Tkachuk and Bennett, they’re uniquely antagonistic, dishing it out and taking it, and then dishing out some more.
That combination of attributes makes them perhaps the most dangerous line in the playoffs. They could be the top-scoring trio on any team. Or a team’s checking line. Or its most annoying pests.
“It’s a deadly combination, all over the ice,” Florida winger Brad Marchand said.
Deadly for opponents. Fun 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 said after the Panthers’ 6-2 win in Game 3 against the Hurricanes, putting them one win from a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final. “I thought the building was electric. I credit my linemates for how they played, getting [the fans] going.”
Through 15 playoff games, this line has earned 65.4% of the shot attempts when on the ice at 5-on-5 and 57% of the expected goals. The trio is averaging 4.6 goals per 60 minutes, and its 70% goals-for percentage ranks third in the playoffs among teams that advanced past the first round.
Since Verhaeghe bounces between lines in the regular season, there’s not been the opportunity for the fans or Panthers players to formally name this line. Among the suggestions on social media — some more cynical than others — were “The Rat Pack,” the “Elbow Grease Line” and the “Immunity Line,” in reference to how they’re able to avoid NHL discipline while playing on the edge.
“We are kind of a line that can do everything,” Bennett said. “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 parts, three players and all of them bringing something different to the dominance.
“The diversity in style is actually a good thing for us,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said.
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 point. He wasn’t thrilled about the trade.
“He’s always had the talent. He’s always had the work ethic. He’s always had the bite, the jam, everything,” Tkachuk said. “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 someone he believes is “the definition of a playoff player.” Bennett has 43 points in 54 games over the past three postseasons, while playing a physical style that has, on occasion, crossed the line into illegal and injurious.
Or as Marchand put it: “He’s got a good right hook.”
Bennett appeared to sucker-punch Marchand during the Panthers’ playoff series win over the Boston Bruins in 2024. It knocked Marchand out of the series for two games and didn’t result in further discipline for Bennett.
At the trade deadline in 2025, they became teammates.
“I didn’t hold a grudge. Again, I know how this game’s played. I played a similar way,” Marchand said. “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.”
But Bennett has jokes. That’s something Marchand didn’t anticipate before getting 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 said. “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.”
0:37
Panthers in complete control after Sam Bennett’s power-play goal
Sam Bennett’s power-play tally fuels the Panthers to a three-goal lead over the Hurricanes in Game 1.
Marchand and Maurice praised Bennett’s speed and shot, but Marchand was especially enamored 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 said 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.
Carter Verhaeghe: “Shows up in the big games”
Verhaeghe, 29, signed as a free agent with the Panthers in 2020 after winning a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in the previous season. He has become one of Florida’s biggest postseason heroes, improving when the regular season ends. Over the past four playoff runs for the Panthers, Verhaeghe has 11 game-winning goals. No one else has more than six.
“He’s a guy that really shows up in the big games,” Bennett said.
Version 1.0 of this line last season was very effective, too; Bennett and Tkachuk skating with winger Evan Rodrigues, one of the Panthers with the strongest analytics. But Rodrigues doesn’t have the offensive game of Verhaeghe, who has a 0.90 points-per-game average over his past 70 postseason games.
Verhaeghe split his time last postseason between Bennett’s line and skating with captain Aleksander Barkov. Maurice was comfortable moving around Verhaeghe in the past. This season, he couldn’t find the right 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 said. “This year, I was a dumbass.”
Though Maurice couldn’t stick with Barkov, Verhaeghe really clicked with Bennett and Tkachuk in 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 said. “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.”
1:01
Verhaeghe’s backhand shot finds the net for Florida
Carter Verhaeghe goes top shelf on a backhand to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead in the first period.
With Bennett and Tkachuk making space and making plays, Maurice sees Verhaeghe as the one who can cash in on the chances they create.
“It’s Carter’s speed and his release, and all of their ability to jump on broken plays,” Maurice said.
Verhaeghe is a name familiar to any NHL fan who has watched the playoffs in the past few seasons. Bennett is gaining notoriety through memorable acts — ask a Toronto Maple Leafs fan about his collision with Anthony Stolarz — as well as his play for Team Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off and impending unrestricted free agency, where he’s expected to double the average annual value of his contract.
But neither of them has been a guest on “The Tonight Show.”
Matthew Tkachuk: “He’s a wonderful human being”
Tkachuk is a superstar. That was true when the Panthers traded star winger Jonathan Huberdeau and top defenseman MacKenzie Weegar for him in 2022, before inking him to an eight-year, $76 million contract extension.
That was true during Tkachuk’s performance in 2023, leading the Panthers in a shocking first-round upset of Boston and through the Eastern Conference playoffs before suffering a broken sternum in the Stanley Cup Final against Vegas.
That was true last postseason, when Tkachuk had 22 points in 24 games and then took the Stanley Cup for a swim in the Atlantic Ocean. And that was true at the 4 Nations Face-Off, when he and his brother created a sensation by dropping the gloves against Canada.
Tkachuk and Bennett have been partners on the ice for multiple 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 said. “But that’s truly how they complement each other.”
Tkachuk has 14 points in 15 games this postseason, which tells only part of the story. He has been his antagonistic self on and off the ice, like when he slammed a ball against a wall repeatedly during a Hurricanes news conference in Raleigh, with the media area separated from the Panthers’ workout area only by a curtain. And like when he slammed Carolina’s Sebastian Aho to the ice in Game 3 after Aho had taken out Panthers forward Sam Reinhart with a hit in Game 2.
“I don’t really look at it as intent or intimidation at all. It’s just sticking up for teammates,” said 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 game, the Hurricanes lamented not retaliating to the retaliation, worrying that Tkachuk would have gotten an opponent to take the bait again.
“They’re very good at goading you into penalties,” Carolina’s Taylor Hall said.
It’s frustrating, for sure. But Tkachuk has that effect on people. Even his coach.
“I hated Matthew when I was in Winnipeg,” said 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 story from after Game 3, when one of the Panthers invited a young fan who was battling cancer to the locker room area with his parents. Tkachuk left the team’s postgame celebration to say hello and chat with him.
“You need to see that because that’s real,” Maurice said.
ON-ICE PERSONAS can be much different than those away from competition. Maurice also points to “Benny’s Buddies,” a program that Sam Bennett launched with the Humane Society of Broward County. Every time he scores a goal, it raises money toward covering pet adoption fees.
“They’re really, really nice people. Then, the puck drops,” Maurice said 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 said that there’s a duality to hockey players. Their actions on the ice define them in public, in the media and reputationally around the league. But when they share a locker room, when they’re no longer opponents but teammates like him and Bennett, there’s a person 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 said. “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, compared this duality with — of all things — 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 said. “There’s a context for all things.”
Within any context, Bennett, Tkachuk and Verhaeghe are one of the NHL’s most compelling trios — and an engine driving the Panthers to potentially repeat as champions.
It’s win-or-go-home Thursday in the MLB wild-card round!
After losing their series openers, the Cleveland Guardians, San Diego Padres and New York Yankees all rebounded with Game 2 wins on Wednesday — setting up a dramatic day with three winner-take-all Game 3s. It’s only the second time in baseball history to host three winner-takes-all playoff games in one day.
Who has the edge with division series berths on the line? We’ve got you covered with pregame lineups, sights and sounds from the ballparks and postgame takeaways as each matchup ends.
Key links: Megapreview | Passan’s take | Bracket | Schedule
Jump to a matchup:
DET-CLE | SD-CHC | BOS-NYY
3 p.m. ET on ESPN
Game 3 starters: Jack Flaherty vs. Slade Cecconi
One thing that will decide Game 3: Perhaps it’s a wide brush, but Detroit’s ability to get the ball in play and convert scoring opportunities into actual runs — or not — is likely to decide Thursday’s game. The Tigers have managed to get quality at-bats early in innings and generate plenty of traffic on the bags, but they’ve been completely unable to turn those scoring chances into runs. Their 15 runners left on base in Game 2 was a record for a franchise whose postseason history dates back to 1907. Over three potential elimination games going back to last year’s ALDS matchup, the Tigers are a combined 3-for-38 (.079) with runners in scoring position. That must change or Detroit will be done. — Bradford Doolittle
Lineups
Tigers
TBD
Guardians
TBD
5 p.m. ET on ABC
Game 3 starters: Yu Darvish vs. Jameson Taillon
One thing that will decide Game 3: Look, this is going to be a battle of the bullpens. Yu Darvish and Jameson Taillon are both going to be on a very quick hook, even if they’re pitching well. But the difference might be which of those starters can get 14 or 15 outs instead of 10 or 11, especially for the Padres given that Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller both pitched in Games 1 and 2 and might have limited availability.
Darvish had a reputation early in his career as someone who couldn’t handle the pressure of a big game, but he has turned that around and has a 2.56 ERA in his six postseason starts with the Padres. Taillon, meanwhile, was terrific down the stretch with the Cubs, with a 1.57 ERA in six starts after coming off the IL in August. This looks like another low-scoring game in which the team that hits a home run will have the edge. — Schoenfield
Lineups
Padres
TBD
Cubs
TBD
8 p.m. ET on ESPN
Game 3 starters: Connelly Early vs. Cam Schlittler
One thing that will decide Game 3: Whether Connelly Early can give the Red Sox some length. Alex Cora’s aggressive decision to pull the plug on Brayan Bello’s start after just 28 pitches in Game 2 led to him using six Red Sox relievers. Garrett Whitlock, Boston’s best reliever not named Aroldis Chapman, threw 48 pitches. Chapman didn’t enter the game but warmed up for the possibility. Left-hander Kyle Harrison, a starter during the regular season, and right-hander Greg Weissert were the only pitchers in Boston’s bullpen not used in the first two games. Early doesn’t need to last seven innings. Harrison, who hasn’t pitched since last Friday, could cover multiple innings. But a quick departure would make the night very difficult for the Red Sox’s bullpen against a potent Yankees lineup. — Jorge Castillo
Lineups
Red Sox
TBD
Yankees
TBD
-
Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — Back in the starting lineup one night after he was benched for matchup purposes, Jazz Chisholm Jr. put together a season-saving performance for the New York Yankees on Wednesday night with dynamic displays of athleticism on both sides of the ball that fueled a 4-3 win over the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series.
Chisholm made a crucial run-saving play with his glove in the seventh inning and hustled all the way from first base on Austin Wells‘ single to score the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning to help the Red Sox force a decisive Game 3 on Thursday.
It will be the fourth winner-take-all postseason game between the Yankees and Red Sox, and the first since the 2021 AL wild card, a one-game format won by Boston.
“Anything to help us win,” Chisholm said. “All that was clear before I came to the field today. After I left the field yesterday, it is win the next game. It is win or go home for us. It is all about winning.”
A mainstay in the lineup all season at second base, Chisholm was left off their starting nine in Game 1 against left-hander Garrett Crochet before entering the loss late as a defensive replacement.
Afterward, Chisholm took questions about manager Aaron Boone’s decision to bench him with his back turned to reporters. It was a poor attempt to conceal his disdain, one that Boone was asked about before Wednesday’s do-or-die Game 2.
“Wasn’t necessarily how I [would’ve] handled it, but I don’t need him to put a happy face on,” Boone said before the game. “I need him to go out and play his butt off for us tonight. That’s what I expect to happen.”
What happened was a clutch effort that kept the Yankees’ season alive.
In the seventh inning, with the score tied and runners on first and second for the Red Sox, Masataka Yoshida hit a ground ball to Chisholm’s right side off Yankees reliever Fernando Cruz that appeared headed to right field to give Boston the lead. Instead, Chisholm made a diving stop. His throw to first base was late and bounced away from first baseman Ben Rice, but Red Sox third base coach Kyle Hudson held Nate Eaton and Chisholm’s effort prevented the run from scoring.
“That was the game right there,” Cruz said. “I think that was the play of the game. There’s some stuff that goes unnoticed sometimes, but I want to make sure it’s mentioned. Jazz saved us the game. Completely.”
An inning later, after Cruz escaped the bases-loaded jam and erupted with a rousing display of emotions, Chisholm worked a seven-pitch, two-out walk against Garrett Whitlock. The plate appearance changed the game.
Wells followed by getting to another full count to give Chisholm the green light at first base. With Chisholm running on the pitch, Wells lined a changeup from Whitlock that landed just inside the right-field line. Chisholm, boosted with his running start, darted around the bases to score with a headfirst slide, just beating the throw to incite a previously anxious crowd.
“Any ball that an outfielder moves to his left or right, I have to score, in my head,” Chisholm said. “That’s all I was thinking.”
The Yankees’ first two runs required less exertion. Ben Rice, another left-handed hitter not included in the starting lineup in Game 1, crushed the first pitch he saw in his postseason debut for a two-run home run off Brayan Bello in the first inning.
The Red Sox matched the blast with a two-run single from Trevor Story in the third inning before manager Alex Cora made a surprising decision in the bottom half of the frame to pull Bello with one out after throwing just 28 pitches. To win, Boston’s bullpen would need to cover at least 20 outs. The aggressive tactic proved effective until Whitlock, the fifth reliever Cora summoned, surrendered Wells’ single on his season-high 48th and final pitch, unleashing Chisholm around the bases.
“What do you expect?” Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge said. “He’s a game changer. But it just shows you the maturity of not taking what happened before and bringing it into today’s game. He showed up ready to play today and ended up having the plays for us throughout the night.”
With a win Thursday, the Yankees could become the first team to take a wild-card series after losing Game 1 since the best-of-three format was implemented for the 2022 season. The Toronto Blue Jays, the AL’s top seed, await in the Division Series. Game 1 is scheduled for Saturday.
If the Yankees get there, they could have a video game to thank. Chisholm credited a late-night video game session after Game 1 in helping turn the page from his disappointment. Playing “MLB The Show” as the New York Aliens — a team he created that features himself, Ken Griffey Jr. and Jimmy Rollins — he drubbed an online opponent by a score of 12-1 and reported for work on Wednesday ready.
“I mercy-ruled someone,” Chisholm said. “That’s how I get my stress off.”
-
Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers felt they addressed any concerns about the state of their team over the final three weeks of the regular season, reeling off 15 wins in 20 games. But in case there was any doubt, they displayed their full might in two wild-card matchups against the Cincinnati Reds, the last of which, an 8-4 victory Wednesday night, advanced them into the National League Division Series.
Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, half of a four-man rotation the Dodgers will ride in their pursuit of another title, combined to give up two earned runs in 13⅔ innings. Ten batters, meanwhile, accumulated 28 hits, 15 of which came courtesy of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez, the top half of what is still widely considered the sport’s deepest lineup. In the end, even a weary bullpen — a hindrance throughout the summer and a potential obstacle in the fall — received a much-needed boost.
Roki Sasaki, the prized rookie Japanese starting pitcher who became a reliever after finally recapturing his velocity last month, checked in for the top of the ninth inning and flummoxed the Reds with triple-digit fastballs and mind-bending splitters.
In the dugout, teammates howled.
Later, in the midst of a champagne-soaked celebration, many of them were still in awe.
“That guy is gross,” Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott said.
“Wow,” third baseman Max Muncy added. “All I can say is wow.”
The Dodgers, forced to play in the best-of-three wild-card series for the first time, have advanced to the division series for the 13th consecutive year, tied with the 1995-2007 New York Yankees for the longest streak since the round was introduced. They will now travel to face the Philadelphia Phillies, who beat them in two of three games at Dodger Stadium in the middle of September.
Taking the ball in Game 1 on Saturday, with game time still undetermined, will be Ohtani.
“I know that Sho will revel being in that environment and pitching in Game 1,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “I think we have a really talented rotation. I think it’s going to be a strength for us if we go forward.”
It was obvious Tuesday, when Snell varied the velocity on his changeups while allowing two baserunners through the first six innings. And it was obvious Wednesday, when Yamamoto pitched into the seventh inning without giving up an earned run.
The Reds took an early 2-0 lead when Hernandez dropped a fly ball with two outs in the first and 21-year-old rookie Sal Stewart followed with a two-run single. From there, Yamamoto retired 13 consecutive batters, five via strikeout. The Reds loaded the bases against him with no outs in the sixth while trailing by a run, but Yamamoto somehow wiggled free, getting Austin Hays to ground into a force at home and striking out Stewart and Elly De La Cruz, both on curveballs.
Twenty-two months ago, the Dodgers lavished Yamamoto with the largest contract ever awarded to a starting pitcher. He languished through most of the 2024 regular season, finally rounded into form in the playoffs and followed by putting together a Cy Young-caliber season in 2025. Over his last five regular-season starts, he gave up three runs in 34 innings. That dominance has carried over into October.
“He’s shown why he got the contract that he got,” Muncy said. “It’s really impressive to be behind him. You feed off it.”
The Dodgers offense took off for four runs immediately after Yamamoto stranded the bases loaded, stringing together four hits and cycling through 10 hitters. Just like in Game 1, it seemed as if the team would cruise to victory. And just like in Game 1, the bullpen made it far more interesting than it should have been.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent Yamamoto back out for the seventh and watched him throw a career-high 113 pitches in hopes of putting less of a burden on his relievers. It bought him two extra outs before Roberts turned to Blake Treinen to end the inning.
But the eighth was once again a struggle. Twenty-four hours after watching the Reds score three runs off Alex Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez and Jack Dreyer in Tuesday’s eighth inning, Roberts turned to Emmet Sheehan, the young starting pitcher who has made a case as the Dodgers’ best bullpen weapon in these playoffs, and hoped for a smoother ride.
Sheehan allowed the first four batters to reach. He gave up a sacrifice fly to Tyler Stephenson then got ahead in the count 0-2 against Will Benson and threw a slider that nearly hit him.
Roberts had seen enough. With two on, one out, the count 1-2 and two runs already across, he approached the mound, shared a word with Sheehan then called on Vesia. Sheehan became the first pitcher to be pulled from a postseason game in the middle of an at-bat with two strikes since Game 5 of the 2021 NL Championship Series, when Roberts replaced an injured Joe Kelly with Evan Phillips.
“I trust him,” Roberts said of Sheehan. “It was his first real crack at kind of late leverage. He wasn’t sharp, but I believe in him.”
Vesia, a left-hander, struck out right-handed pinch hitter Miguel Andujar with a first-pitch fastball then walked Matt McLain and retired TJ Friedl with a slider low and away to end the threat. An inning later, Sasaki came out of the bullpen, befuddled the Reds’ hitters, recorded three quick outs and, depending on what happens in the ensuing weeks, might have changed the complexion of the pitching staff.
A month ago, the Dodgers were languishing. Their offense was inconsistent, their rotation was only beginning to round into form, and their bullpen was a mess.
Now, it seems, they’re bullish.
“I think we can win it all,” Roberts said when asked how far he believes his team can go. “I think we’re equipped to do that. We certainly have the pedigree. We certainly have the hunger. We’re playing great baseball. And in all honesty, I don’t care who we play. I just want to be the last team standing.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment12 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024