Carter Verhaeghe's natural hat trick in Florida's 8-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday made the Panthers the first NHL team with one in three consecutive games.
By the numbers: Brady Tkachuk had a natural hat trick, three uninterrupted goals, in each of Florida's previous two games. Verhaeghe scored at 17:56 and 19:07 of the first period and again at 6:02 of the second.
- Before Saturday the Panthers had never had two players record a hat trick in the same game. Sam Bennett got the other one, completing it at 11:14 of the third.
The big picture: Florida is also the first team in over 100 years to record four or more hat tricks before its 10th game of a season. The last was the Toronto St. Patricks, with five in 1922-23.
Zoom in: The Panthers are the second team in the past 105 years with four or more hat tricks across a three-game span, after the Quebec Nordiques managed five in two games in February 1981.
- "The speed of our offensive game is coming together. Now, you're starting to see some chemistry form with different players," coach Paul Maurice said.
Between the lines: Matthew Tkachuk extended his point streak to eight games with three assists and joined Aleksander Barkov as the only Panthers to reach 10 assists within his first 10 games of a season. Bennett's third goal was his 400th career NHL point.
Why it matters: Florida improved to 5-2-2 with a third straight win, and the run shows where the offence is coming from: several forwards carrying games outright. Seattle fell to 5-3-1 and closed a 3-1-1 road trip, with coach Lane Lambert saying his team got beat in every area.
