In the six minutes, 37 seconds they shared the ice at even-strength Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena in the Penguins' 2-1 overtime victory over the Avalanche, the third line of Jeff Carter, Brock McGinn and Kasperi Kapanen achieved almost nothing, unless one cares to count their collective two shots on goal.
No surprise there, of course.
And there really wasn't going to be a surprise in this context, at least not beyond the bizarre call to boomerang back to these three playing together again coming out of the NHL All-Star break. Though even that's not much of a surprise, given the affinity that Mike Sullivan, Ron Hextall and seemingly everyone in management appears to have for Carter, in particular. They were going to give them -- and him -- every chance to get right.
Thing is, he won't. Not at age 38. Not with scarcely any sign of his old wheels. Not with his hands abandoning him just as quickly. Not with zero points now in his past 11 games. And most certainly not when he's defending like this:
Yikes. Look, the defensemen weren't exactly in optimal position to prevent Nate MacKinnon from whirring around there, but Carter can't simply look away from him once that opening's exposed.
And yet, it can't be spoken that Carter didn't have an impact on this night. Because he'd, in fact, have two:
That's ... not a pretty collision in the first period with old friend Evan Rodrigues, who's likely fortunate that he didn't sustain a significant leg injury. It should've been penalized and wasn't.
Nothing otherwise seemed amiss about it, though, if only because Carter's barely been physical at all since his arrival in Pittsburgh, much less dirty. And it would've been easy to forget this even occurred, had it not been for a much more egregious collision in the third:
Whoa, right?
Carter skated his shoulder right through the head of Cale Makar, the NHL's premier defenseman, and sent him to the Colorado locker room for roughly 20 minutes before he returned. This, too, should've been penalized and wasn't, remarkable considering referee Carter Sandlak is standing right there and looking right at it.
But never mind that for the moment: What the heck's with Carter?
Is it possible he's heard from management that he needs to find a different way to help the Penguins by becoming ... I don't know, scary or something?
Is it possible he's decided on his own that he's about to enter the dark phase of his career, the way that, say, Corey Perry did after his 50-goal days were done in Anaheim and he emerged as Dark Duck?
I've got no clue and, as ever, Carter wasn't around in the locker room to answer questions. In his last real shows of speed in his career, he's invariably among the first to bolt after games.
They had plenty to say in the Colorado room, however, about the hit on Makar.
Jared Bednar, the head coach, replied to a reporter asking what he saw thusly: "He skated right through his head. That's what I saw."
Makar himself would call the hit "pretty blindside," adding, "The ref said apparently we ran into each other, but I don't know how that's possible. He was coming down the ice."
There's no truth to the rumor that the Penguins will privately lobby the NHL's Department of Player Safety to suspend Carter for the remainder of the regular season, the coming playoffs and, if necessary, all of 2023-24, as well.