COLUMBUS, Ohio -- There's no sugarcoating it: Jeff Carter and Brian Dumoulin were two of the Penguins' biggest underachievers and disappointments all season.
Both players were passionately defended by Mike Sullivan a month or so ago, but the Penguins' results with either one of them on the ice speak for themselves.
Carter, who could retire before the final season of his contract, had an on-ice goals share of 36.9% at 5-on-5 while Dumoulin, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent, had an on-ice goals share of 42.6% at 5-on-5.
There's a real possibility both of them have played their last game in a Penguins uniform. If so, they left quite the fitting parting gift in the Penguins' 3-2 overtime loss to the Blue Jackets here at Nationwide Arena Thursday to conclude the season.
Late in the third period, the Penguins led, 2-1, but found themselves on the penalty-kill due to an Alex Nylander minor. Emil Bemstrom ultimately tied the game as a result, and Carter and Dumoulin were at the forefront of allowing the look to develop:
Things were going well at the beginning of the sequence. As Carter applied pressure up top, Drew O'Connor smartly rotated into his spot once the puck was worked cross-ice to the other point. Because the Penguins were down a man, Carter had to immediately rotate into the station O'Connor had just vacated.
The problem, though, is that Carter was simply too slow in swinging back to the spot, leaving Bemstrom wide-open on the weak side of the ice. Carter likely could have gotten in the lane of a pass to Bemstrom, but the route he took went a bit toward the middle of the ice rather than directly at Bemstrom, making all the difference in the timing.
As that was happening, Dumoulin executed his rotation in the penalty-kill formation just fine, but he inexplicably shrunk himself and failed to get in the lane of the eventual cross-ice pass to Bemstrom.
With time and space, Bemstrom had everything he needed to one-time the puck past Tristan Jarry, tying the game while the Penguins blew yet another third-period lead.
