I’m not sure if the story above or something like it actually happened in real life but when Jeff Carter arrived to Los Angeles he sure did come across as timid. Still suffering from the injury he sustained while playing with Columbus, Carter got off to a slow start for the Los Angeles Kings.
Many, including the hockey media and Los Angeles Kings faithful were skeptical that trading for Jeff Carter was a wise idea. In fact it seemed like a desperate gamble. The reunion of the “toxic twins” was a grand concern and with the team already struggling, the last thing needed was an added negative influence to not just the team, but to Mike Richards himself. It was a risky gamble that General Manager Dean Lombardi was willing to take with his job on the line.
The Kings lost their last 2 games of the season and fell to the 8th seed of the Western Conference. Their first round playoff opponents were the Vancouver Canucks, who ended the season with the most points in the NHL (and made it to within one win of the Stanley Cup in the previous year). Many were predicting an annihilation of the Kings but the opposite incurred. Instead, with the solid goaltending of Kings netminder Jonathan Quick, the possessed wrecking ball havoc created by Captain Dustin Brown and the overtime sniping skills of Jarret Stoll, the Kings upset the Canucks in 5 games. The hockey world took notice but no credit was giving to Jeff Carter and rightfully so. He was invisible in the series.
The next round had the Kings sweep the rival St. Louis Blues. Quick and Brown again had been brilliant and superstar forward Anze Kopitar and stud defenseman Drew Doughty had started to wake up and had contributed largely to the victory. Like in the first series, Carter was there but like a ghost he was still unseen. The fact that he only had 1 goal through the first 2 playoff series didn’t help his case at all. Jeff Carter was the forgotten man on the team.
The Western Conference Final was a tight war against the Phoenix (now Arizona) Coyotes and it was in this series where Jeff Carter started to emerge and shine … but first from the shadows. It is not currently known whether Carter’s slow start was due to the injury or due to still feeling uncomfortable in his new surroundings but Carter now started to play passive aggressively while playing on a line with buddy Mike Richards and popular scapegoat Dustin Penner (this line was dubbed “the Redemption Line” as all 3 men had been facing hardships and now had something to prove).
The Coyotes, like the Kings were a heavily defensive team and they were being successful (sometimes) at shutting down the top line of Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Justin Williams. The depth of adding Carter to the team at the deadline is what helped the Kings get past the stubborn and pesky Coyotes. In game 2, Carter quietly scored a hat trick (if such a thing was possible) to lead the Kings to a 4-0 victory. None of the goals were “pretty” but they didn’t have to be. This was the ice that Carter needed to break to gain some momentum and regain some confidence in himself. Like the great phoenix (not Coyotes) that rose from the ashes, a new Jeff Carter was being reborn before our very eyes.
With the Kings up in the series 3-1, game 5 was played in Glendale, AZ. It was a back and forth (and at times brutal) affair, with both teams tied at 3 a piece. In overtime, an already intense game intensified. Emotions were running high and the Coyotes were determined to not be eliminated by the Pacific division rival Kings on their home ice. Whatever determination they had been crushed when Kings Captain Dustin Brown steamrolled over Coyotes defenseman Mike Rozival. This infuriated the Coyotes as they felt it was a dirty hit by Brown. Now debating this hit is for another time and article as it distracts away from the story of Jeff Carter but this hit became very important. It led to the next face off.
Distracted and rattled, the Coyotes were ripe for the final blow. Mike Richards won the ensuing face off and got the puck out to Dustin Penner. Using his large frame to distance his opponents from the puck, he got the pass out to the incoming Jeff Carter. If Kings fans hadn’t seen the breakout skating ability of Carter before this point, they got it in spades now as Carter took the puck, headed straight for the net and fired a shot that was saved by Coyotes goalie Mike Smith. A rebound was created and the bouncing puck bounced right past Richards and the 2 Coyotes defenseman and right onto Dustin Penner’s stick. Penner took the gift and gave a gift of his own (to the LA Kings nation) by rifling the puck into the net and sending the Los Angeles Kings to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 19 years.
