The Penguins had pretty high expectations for Jeff Carter when they acquired him from Los Angeles as the NHL trade deadline was closing in.
They were convinced that, despite being 36, he still could skate well enough to fit nicely in Mike Sullivan's system. That Carter could add to their offensive balance and play a variety of positions. That he could win some faceoffs and enhance their penalty-killing unit.
So, yeah, they were counting on him for a lot.
But the Penguins didn't anticipate this.
And, really, why should they have?
After all, Carter hadn't done it in his previous 1,092 NHL games, which is not a small sample size.
Heck, he hadn't even come close in more than three years.
But that all changed during the Penguins' 8-4 victory against Buffalo at PPG Paints Arena Thursday night.
That's when Carter, who has accomplished so much in this league, scored four goals in a game for the first time.
For the first time, he said, since he was playing youth hockey.
And while he couldn't explain why it finally happened this deep into his career -- "I don't know what happened out there, to be honest with you," Carter said -- there was no mystery about how his teammates felt about what they had witnessed.
"Tonight was pretty incredible, what he did out there," Kris Letang said. "It shows how pure of a goal-scorer he is."
The four-goal rampage matched Carter's output during his previous 12 games with the Penguins. The first three gave Carter his seventh career hat trick and first since March 29, 2018.
He needed an assist from a replay official on his first goal, which was awarded at 9:57 of the opening period only after a video review determined that his shot from inside the left circle had crossed the goal line by a millimeter or two before Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen swept it out of the crease.
After that, however, the evening became a showcase for Carter's goal-scoring repertoire.
"The more he scored, the more you feel like another one is coming," Frederick Gaudreau said.
Perhaps because there usually was.
At 11:39 of the first, Carter broke a 1-1 tie by rapping a Jason Zucker feed past Buffalo goalie Michael Houser from the right hash mark during a power play.
Carter completed his hat trick by knocking in a Marcus Pettersson rebound at 4:36 of the second, then put an exclamation point on his outburst by beating Houser with a scorching backhander from inside the right circle at 3:02 of the third.
"I was lucky to get that first one to go in," Carter said. "And then it just kind of snowballed from there."
For Houser and his teammates, it probably felt more like being stuck in an avalanche, especially when Carter and his linemates, Jared McCann and Gaudreau, were on the ice. They accounted for five goals and five assists.
"The puck kind of was following me all night," Carter said. "Really, all three of us. ... Our line is starting to build some chemistry, and get things going in the right direction."
That's critical for the Penguins, who could enter the playoffs with three -- maybe even four -- lines capable of scoring on a fairly regular basis. Such diversity could cause stress fractures in even the most stingy team defense they might face.
"In the playoffs, it's tough to score, so you don't want to rely only on one line," Letang said. "Having Jeff in our lineup, it brings a lot of balance for the forwards."
But while this game underscored the challenges the Penguins' offense could pose to other clubs, it also illustrated that they still haven't exorcised all of the blemishes from their own defensive game. They were sloppy for much of the evening, guilty of errors in judgment and execution that made it possible for Buffalo to create -- and capitalize on -- some quality scoring opportunities.
"We've got to do a better job at limiting some of the quality of the chances," Sullivan said. "That's an area where we could have been better tonight. ... Defensively, we weren't as sharp as we should be, or could be, in defending the rush, in particular."
The regular-season finale against the Sabres Saturday will give their team defense a final dress rehearsal before the playoffs.
"You obviously want to tighten things up," Carter said. "It's definitely something that's been talked about. Hopefully, we come out Saturday and really lock things down and create offense off of our defense."
Regardless of its flaws, the victory moved the Penguins back into first place in the East Division. They are two points ahead of Washington, but the Capitals have two games in hand.
The Penguins are guaranteed to finish ahead of the New York Islanders, who are fourth in the East, and can secure no worse than a second-place finish by beating the Sabres Saturday, even if they do it in overtime or a shootout.
Boston has three games remaining and could close the four-point gap separating it from the Penguins, even if the Penguins win their last game. However, even if the Bruins pulled even in regulation victories, the first tiebreaker, the Penguins would have an insurmountable lead in regulation/overtime victories, which is the second.
Precisely where the Penguins will end up in the East might not be known until Tuesday night, when Boston travels to Washington for the final regular-season game for both teams.
Regardless of who they face in the first round, the Penguins know their defense and goaltending will have to be more stingy than they were Thursday.
Especially when they can only count on Jeff Carter to score in a four-goal cluster once every thousand games or so.
"We're not satisfied with our game," Sullivan said. "We know we can get better. We're going to continue to push this group to get better in every aspect of our game."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Houser, whose family resides in Wexford, had a rough time in his first NHL game in his hometown, allowing eight goals on 34 shots.
• Sidney Crosby, Brian Dumoulin, Kasperi Kapanen and McCann were the Penguins' other goal-scorers. Drake Caggiula (two), Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner beat Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry.
• Carter's four-goal game was the first allowed by the Sabres since Daniel Alfredsson and Martin Havlat of Ottawa did it in the same game in a 10-4 Senators victory on Nov. 2, 2005.
• Evgeni Malkin's assist on Kapanen's goal extended his scoring streak against the Sabres to 15 games, the longest of his career against any opponent.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Jeff Carter, Penguins
2. Jared McCann, Penguins
3. Frederick Gaudreau, Penguins
THE INJURIES
• Winger Brandon Tanev has resumed skating after suffering an unspecified upper-body injury April 3.
* Defenseman Mike Matheson is week-to-week after being struck in the face by a puck May 1.
• Forward Evan Rodrigues is day-to-day with an unspecified lower-body injury.
• Goalie Casey DeSmith has an unspecified lower-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Jared McCann-Jeff Carter-Frederick Gaudreau
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Colton Sceviour
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Mark Friedman-Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
And for Don Granato's Sabres:
Anders Bjork-Sam Reinhart-Victor Olofsson
Rasmus Asplund-Casey Mittelstadt-Tage Thompson
Jeff Skinner-Dylan Cozens-Arthu Ruotsalainen
Brett Murray-Riley Sheahan-Drake Caggiula
Mattias Samuelsson-Rasmus Ristolainen
Jacob Bryson-Colin Miller
Rasmus Dahlin-Henri Jokiharju
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are scheduled to practice Friday at noon at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex before facing Buffalo in the regular-season finale Saturday at 3:08 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena.
THE CONTENT
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