Lars Eller hit 1,200 games on the minimum, and his minutes keep climbing

Lars Eller is 37, signed for the league minimum, and Paul Maurice keeps giving him more of the game. That tells you everything about game No. 1,200.

He got there Wednesday night against Chicago, the first Denmark-born player ever to reach 1,200 NHL games. Nobody else from Denmark is close. Frans Nielsen is next at 925.

The number I care about is the one Maurice is writing on the lineup card. Through the first four games, Eller averaged 12.8 minutes a night, by our count from NHL data. Over his last 10, he's at 17.2. Against the Hawks he played 18:22 on the third line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.

That's not a ceremonial bump for a milestone guy. That's a coach trusting a 37-year-old in the minutes that decide games.

Why the minutes keep coming

Eller has eight points in 16 games, one goal and seven assists. The goal was the late winner in Chicago on Oct. 25 that snapped a skid. That's the whole Eller résumé in one shift: not a lot of noise, the right play at the right time.

Maurice put it plainly before the game. "He's had very little aberration here at this age because he just does all the right hard things," he said.

I play this game. I know what "the right hard things" means. It means you're on the right side of your man on the wall every time. It means your stick is in the lane on the PK. It means you win the draw back to your D when it's 2-1 in the third.

None of it makes a highlight. All of it keeps a coach from losing sleep.

The long road to Sunrise

Seven franchises. St. Louis drafted him 13th overall in 2007. Then Montreal, Washington, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Ottawa and now Florida.

The one that defines him is 2018. He scored the Game 5 goal that clinched the Cup for Washington in Vegas, the first Danish-born player to win it. He had seven goals and 18 points that spring.

And now he's here on a one-year deal worth $850,000, the veteran minimum, riding the right wing on a third line that has started to tilt games. For a team that has spent real money everywhere else, that's the best bargain on the roster.

"The little kid would be proud today, for sure," Eller said.

He should be. Eighteen seasons, and the kid from Denmark is still the guy a Cup coach sends out when it matters. That's a Heat Culture career if I've ever seen one: no fuss, all work, and somehow still standing in year 18.

Pabs' read

Don't treat Eller as the nice story of the week. Treat him as the reason this third line works. Lundell gets the attention, and he should, but the 37-year-old on his flank is the one who makes the shifts boring for the other team.

Florida can lean on that line through the winter, and I'd keep the minutes right where they are.