When Jeff Carter scored the overtime game-winning goal in Game 2, the joy the Los Angeles Kings had wasn’t just limited to going up 2-0 in the series. The Kings were rooting pretty hard for Carter to get things going offensively.
“He’s been in the media a lot, he’s been in a lot of story lines,” Jarret Stoll said after the game. "[He’s] A great addition for our team, a lot of offense coming over to us. Solidify our lineup, depthwise throughout our lineup and made us a lot better team. Big goal. Huge goal for him and for our team.”
Before last night’s goal, Carter hadn’t scored since Game 2 of the Western Conference finals when he netted a hat trick against Phoenix. Since then he’s had just two assists but his goal was big for not just him, but his line as well.
“That’s the way it’s gotta be in the playoffs especially in the Stanley Cup finals,” Dustin Penner said. “Cartsy had a huge goal and a huge game for us. As a line we needed something like that to get us going again because we’ve been kind of indifferent.”
Indifferent in that they’ve been invisible offensively for a little while. If Carter just wants to spend his time scoring game-winners, however, I don’t think the Kings will mind too much.