Lars Eller reaches a rare milestone with the Panthers

Lars Eller played his 1,200th NHL game tonight as the Panthers beat the Blackhawks 5-3.

He's only the 143rd player in league history to get there, and he now sits level with Owen Nolan on the all-time games-played list. For a Danish center who says the NHL wasn't even on the map when he was a kid, that's quite a place to land.

Eller told the Panthers' Jameson Olive before the game that it was a "blessing and privilege."

"You know, when you're in it every day and you just game after game or season after season, it becomes normal and just becomes part of your everyday life," Eller said. "But every time you get a big round number, thousand, whatever, now twelve hundred. But if I reflect and look back, it's pretty special."

He went further back than that. "I think the little kid would be proud today, for sure, and just continue living the dream and doing what you love for this many years," Eller said.

The Panthers had some fun with it. Eller read the starting lineups in the locker room and called himself Mr. 1200 when he reached his own name.

Then he played, skating on the right wing of the third line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen for 18:22 of ice time. Chicago has now lost four straight, and Florida got the win with Paul Maurice's message about Barkov still fresh.

Why Paul Maurice keeps trusting Eller at 37

Maurice was asked how Eller has stayed a core depth player this long, and he went straight to Eric Staal, a former player of his who finished his career in Florida. He was careful to say they're different players, but he sees the same consistency in the fundamentals.

"He has had very little aberration here at this age because he just does all the right hard things," Maurice said. He added that Eller's legs look good, his intensity and quickness are still there, and "he can get a shot off."

The coach also said Eller has "a version of Sam Reinhart's brain," which is why he stays relevant. That's high praise, considering Paul Maurice's explanation of Reinhart's hot streak was only a day old.

Eller's path to this point is long. St. Louis took him 13th overall in 2007, and he has played for seven franchises, including the Blues, Canadiens, Capitals, Avalanche, Penguins and Senators. Nothing tops the 2018 Stanley Cup with Washington, where he scored the clinching goal against Vegas in Game 5 and became the first Danish-born champion.

He was also the first Danish-born player to reach 1,000 games, scoring in that one with Pittsburgh in January 2024. He now has 275 more games than Frans Nielsen, the next Dane on the list.

A third-line veteran who still makes the right play shift after shift is easy to overlook, and Maurice clearly doesn't. Florida plays at Washington on Saturday, where Eller spent parts of eight seasons.