The Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett show just keeps rolling, much to the Panthers' advantage

New York Times

2 days ago

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brad Marchand waxed poetic about Sam Bennett and his monster shift in which he crushed Vasily Podkolzin, and then John Klingberg, before scoring his league-leading 14th goal and giving the Florida Panthers a huge separator Monday night.
Marchand was going on and on and on and on. Bennett's former rival called him 'an animal this whole playoffs.'
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'He's built for this time of year,' Marchand said after the Panthers beat the heck out of the Edmonton Oilers in a 6-1 Game 3 victory to put themselves two wins from a Stanley Cup repeat. 'He's built for this time of year, just how competitive he is and how intense. Obviously, you see the physicality piece. That shift was a perfect example of his game. Blows two guys up and then somehow leads the rush after that and scores a beautiful goal. He can do it all.'
Marchand talked about how Bennett isn't scared to go to the dirty areas you must go this time of year: 'He lives there.' Marchand talked about how Bennett is unfazed by the big moments, how he has the hands and the skill and the intensity level and strength to compete in the corners.
As Marchand began to circle back and repeat, 'He's built for this time of year,' Sam Reinhart, sitting to his right, finally interrupted with a whisper of, 'Bed.'
Reinhart was tired and letting Marchand know it was time to shut his yap so they could head off into the humid South Florida night for some well-earned shuteye.
'Yeah, sorry, I gotta wrap it up here,' Marchand said, laughing, before deadpanning, 'He's been great.'
MAKE A HIT ✅POT A BEAUTY ✅
Sam Bennett is an absolute force to be reckoned with. #StanleyCup
🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT & @SportsonMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ https://t.co/4KjbdjVctF pic.twitter.com/ZDgVkrwpKE
— NHL (@NHL) June 10, 2025
Like Bennett, Marchand has also been an animal this postseason, making it awfully tough for the Conn Smythe Trophy voters who are tasked with choosing the playoff MVP, should the Panthers win a second consecutive championship in their third straight Stanley Cup Final.
In a rarity, Connor McDavid won the Conn Smythe in a losing effort last postseason. That likely won't happen again if the Panthers can finish this off.
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Obviously, a lot can happen still when Edmonton has two of the best players in the world. McDavid and the Oilers showed that last year by nearly completing the impossible and rallying from a 3-0 series deficit before losing Game 7.
But this time, Marchand and Bennett are just playing too well for one of the deepest offensive teams we've seen in the playoffs in some time to not earn Playoff MVP honors if they win it all again.
The Panthers are certainly deeper than last year's team, which averaged 3.04 goals per game in the playoffs.
They are the sixth team in NHL history to score five or more goals 11 times in the playoffs, and Monday night was the eighth time in the past 11 games. They've scored 80 times in 20 playoff games for a league-best four goals per game. They have 11 double-digit point scorers and seven skaters with at least five goals. Their defensemen lead the league with 18 goals and 50 points.
'We have so much offensive depth and great players — so many good defensemen, too,' said Carter Verhaeghe, whose first-period power-play goal was his 13th career playoff game-winner and third in his Stanley Cup Final career. 'It seems like everyone's pulling the rope. Everyone's doing their job, goes out there and does their job. And one night, someone's gonna have a big night. Another night, someone else is gonna have a big night.'
There's no doubt that's true, but the one thing that has become a constant is Marchand and Bennett always having big nights.
They became the second set of teammates in NHL history to open a Stanley Cup Final with a goal streak of three-plus games, joining Minnesota North Stars forwards Steve Payne and Dino Ciccarelli in the 1981 Final.
Marchand didn't waste time Monday. Fresh off his double-overtime winner in Game 2 in Edmonton, he became the first player in Stanley Cup Final history to follow an overtime winner with a goal in the opening minute of the following game, thanks to a sensational play by Anton Lundell. His goal 56 seconds into Game 3 was actually his third consecutive goal for the Panthers.
It was his eighth goal of the playoffs and 11th of his career in the Stanley Cup Final.
BRAD MARCHAND PICKS UP RIGHT WHERE HE LEFT OFF 😱
LESS THAN A MINUTE INTO GAME 3, IT'S 1-0 FOR THE CATS 😼 pic.twitter.com/48RWC3fNIo
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 10, 2025
'I don't know if it set the tempo, but it also feels good when you score early in the game,' Marchand said. 'It gives you confidence. You can't expect that to happen each night. Especially with the way the series has gone so far, one goal doesn't mean a whole lot — especially with that group, how talented they are. You don't expect to keep them off the board, right? So it's just a play in a game, and you have to build off it and move forward.'
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Perhaps, but then there's Bennett.
Like Marchand, the fellow pending free agent forward continued his scoring ways by extending his goal streak to four games to establish a new franchise record in the postseason. His league-best 14 goals in 20 games is only 11 fewer than he had in 76 regular-season games.
'Marshy had an unreal goal to start the game,' said Matthew Tkachuk. 'Got us momentum right on our side. And Benny gained that separation for us and it was a helluva move that I had the best seat in the house for. So they're both playing well, both been great leaders for us.'
Bennett's shift was simply superb. After two mammoth hits by Bennett, one that had Podkolzin still reverberating, Eetu Luostarinen stole the puck from him just inside the offensive blue line and then sent the puck into open space for Bennett before he beat a besieged Stuart Skinner with his latest beauty.
'He's been incredible,' captain Aleksander Barkov said of Bennett. 'He's scoring goals, but he's doing so much more other stuff. He's carrying the puck in the neutral zone. He's making plays. He's defending well. He's just unreal right now.'
It was a frustrating sequence for the Oilers, who were outchanced dramatically in the first period at five-on-five and surrendered the first two goals. But after Corey Perry made it a game again with a power-play goal 1:40 into the second, the Panthers answered almost instantly with Barkov pressuring Klingberg into a turnover en route to Reinhart's goal, then Bennett following up a few minutes later to make it 4-1.
The Oilers were unhinged from there with Trent Frederic cross-checking Bennett twice in the lower back to point he sawed off his own stick, an incident that triggered a 10-skater melee highlighted by what felt like an endless fight between Jonah Gadjovich and Darnell Nurse.
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'Gadgey did an incredible job sticking up for the guys there and taking on Nurse, who's obviously a tough guy as well,' Marchand said.
The Panthers took their licks and usually skated away, which made the Oilers really lose their cool. The number of cross-checks and two-handed slashes the Panthers absorbed was simply unbelievable as they drew 11 power plays.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said his players were making 'investments' for the next game.
'We talked about it in the third,' Tkachuk said. 'If you have to take a punch, take a punch. If you have to take a cross-check, take a cross-check. Spear, slash in the face, whatever the case is, you've got to take it. We just played a really smart game.'
Brad Marchand told the Oilers to "use their heads" after the Panthers PPG on Edmonton's 4th penalty of the first period 😳 pic.twitter.com/BMQQLHETK4
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 10, 2025
It'll be interesting how the Oilers respond. They were supposed to have the day off Tuesday. Instead, Knoblauch called for a practice. As poorly as Edmonton played, there has to be further concern about the Panthers dominating every second period in the series, the even-strength play Monday and continuously getting to the net and having their way there.
'Obviously we're a very deep team,' Marchand said. 'And not just deep offensively, but a lot of guys play a 200-foot game, and a lot of great leaders on this group as well. I think that's one of our strengths is the depth of the group, from the front end to the back end to the goaltending, and it's the way that they have orchestrated this group and the lineup to play a certain way.'
Florida is coming at the Oilers in waves, with Barkov centering a top line that has one of the NHL's most clutch playoff performers in Verhaeghe and a 50-goal scorer in Reinhart, a second line that boasts the NHL's leading goal scorer in Bennett pivoting Evan Rodrigues and Tkachuk, and a third line that has Marchand with two stellar kids in Lundell and Luostarinen.
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Heck, the Panthers' second power-play unit has Verhaghe, Marchand and Bennett. That's a luxury of riches right there and a unit that finally caused coach Paul Maurice to begin power plays with them over the so-called top unit.
'They've been the ones generating,' Maurice said. 'They want a name change. They don't want to be called '2' anymore. It's important for those guys to go out. They're going, they're faster right now and we have good players on there. We have the playoff leading goal scorer on that unit. Why wouldn't they start?'
(Photo of Brad Marchand: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)