If his role isn't going to change in the slightest, be my guest.
New York fans, I'm sure, will go on and on about Jeff Carter's incidental contact with Igor Shesterkin during the third period of the Penguins' 5-2 loss to the Rangers in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, but they should be thanking him for his abysmal impact.
Aside from that moment, Carter's performance in Game 2 was hardly any different from just about every game he's played since signing his two-year contract extension on Jan. 26. If you've paid a lick of attention, you'd know that's not a good thing.
Carter, somehow, managed to finish the regular-season as the only Penguins skater to check all three boxes of being outscored, outshot and out-chanced when on the ice at five-on-five. I've been met with rebuttals that he spent a portion of the season playing against the opposition's top opponents, and when he wasn't, he was getting extreme defensive-zone usage. Both of those things are true, but they don't excuse the drastic degree to which the Penguins were outplayed with him on the ice.
Even at 37 years old, Carter can still find success with the Penguins. It just certainly isn't going to happen playing center.
It's blatantly obvious the Penguins are committed to Carter at center because of the value he brings at the faceoff dot. He won 57% of his draws during the regular-season and is clicking at 57.7% through his first two postseason appearances. What I don't get, is the hesitation to move him to the right wing. He can still take faceoffs and end up back in the wing position. Hockey is plenty fluid enough to allow for such a novel concept.
Neither Teddy Blueger nor Evan Rodrigues seem all that enticing as options to take over at center on the third-line ... that is, until you watch some variation of this shift multiple times a game, every game:
Uh ...
What really stands out in that clip is how Carter's momentum always seemed to be taking him away from the puck, specifically in the offensive-zone. In that regard, it's not even a physical thing. It's a lack of anticipation. Straight up. Or, he legitimately doesn't want the puck on his stick and isn't putting himself in position for it to happen. Either way, it's a massive problem and something that shouldn't be occurring with such regularity for a skater with well over 1,000 career games under their belt.
Carter's on-ice results at five-on-five this postseason actually haven't been too bad. Well, unless you think goals are important. The Penguins' share of shots and chances with him on the ice are comfortably above water, but they've failed to find the back of the net and there's little evidence to suggest that Carter has been a driver of those results and not a passenger.
One of my biggest pet-peeves coaching high school hockey are the kids that know they don't have the greatest puck-skills, so they just swat at the puck any chance they get rather than attempting to make a play with their feet or make a tape-to-tape pass. Emphasis on tape-to-tape, because Carter loves to attempt soft little area-passes that end up directly on the opposition's stick.
Here's the puck dying on his stick on three separate occasions during the same shift Thursday night:
At what point do plays like that become unacceptable? If that point hasn't come by now, don't expect it to at all.
Carter is even struggling to do one of the easiest things a hockey player can do ... get the puck deep:
Seriously, what gives with the dinky dumps off the boards? He's literally handing the puck back to the opposition. This isn't Conor Sheary trying to dump the puck here. It's 6' 3", 220 lbs. Carter. It is insanity that he isn't getting those pucks below the goal line.
The individual offense isn't there and he isn't getting the puck deep consistently, but I'm sure his size has at least been of value along the boards and in puck battles ... right?
Wrong:
Perfectly pedestrian attempt to support the board battle. As soon as he arrived, Carter should have used his body to separate the puck from an oncoming Mika Zibanejad, but instead, he completely opened himself up to Zibanejad, who then grabbed the puck along the boards and used his body to create separation between Carter.
And then there's the Penguins-era Patrick Marleau fly-by out in the neutral-zone to top it off. His refusal to hard-stop on pucks has also been a major factor in his ineffectiveness.
The only thing more concerning than Carter's performance, is that Mike Sullivan seems completely oblivious to it.
Is there a single good reason that Carter is continually utilized as the Penguins' extra attacker when they pull their goalie? Even with Rickard Rakell and Jason Zucker out of the lineup, all of Danton Heinen, Kasperi Kapanen and Rodrigues have a better chance of helping the Penguins create offense than Carter in that situation.
He does have some value as a net-front presence that can jam home loose pucks and score on an odd deflection, yet this is what the Penguins got when Carter had a juicy look on the doorstep as they tried to claw back into Game 2:
Weak.
Look, Carter is not the only issue the Penguins have. They're down to their third-string netminder and are missing several valuable skaters that all play somewhat significant roles. Blueger hasn't scored in ages, Brian Boyle's impact continues to diminish, and even though Kapanen is creating chances, he still can't find the back of the net.
But Carter's performance has done nothing to soften any of those blows.
It can't be Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin every time for the Penguins. They can be leaned on, sure. They're the stars of the team, after all. But they cannot afford to go another two games with zero goals from the Carter line.
So, NHL, go right ahead and suspend Carter. Or at least this version of him.