The Redemption Of Jeff Carter: Part Two

Afterwards, Dustin Penner along with other Kings were rightfully getting accolades from the press and the fans for their hard-fought victory.  Overlooked again was Jeff Carter but it didn’t seem to be bothering him.  As the playoffs proceeded Carter’s confidence had been slowly returning and getting stronger.  Everything that he endured in the last year was now fading away and he was starting to play at his best and the best was yet to come.

In the Stanley Cup Final, the Kings battled the New Jersey Devils.  With a 1-0 lead in the series, game 2 went into overtime tied 1-1.   Now with full confidence in his abilities, feeling comfortable with his new teammates and a desire to win the Stanley Cup,  Carter accepted a pass by Alec Martinez at the red line.  Skating to full speed, Carter entered the enemy zone and bulldozed past the Devils defensemen like a runaway train.  At an angle, Carter fired a shot at Devils legendary goalie Martin Brodeur, hoping that a possible rebound would bounce to linemates Richards or Penner, as it did against Phoenix in the previous series.  Instead Brodeur kicked the puck to a no man’s land.  Using his momentum, Carter skated around the Brodeur’s net and picked up his OWN rebound. With another Devils defenseman marking him, he skated to the far point of the red circle and sniped a shot past everyone, including Martin Brodeur and into the net for the game winner.  The shot was breathtaking (for Kings fans) and proved that Jeff Carter had now fully arrived.   Nobody could ignore him now.

Carter scored his 6^th goal of the playoffs in game 3 as the Kings shut out New Jersey 4-0 to take a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup series.  The Devil’s came back successfully with victories in the next 2 games.  The series wound up back in Los Angeles for game 6 and it seemed to be another close tight game early on.  Devils’ forward Stephen Bernier eagerly boarded Kings’ veteran Rob Scuderi from behind and face first into the boards.  This led to a continuous 5 minute power-play for the Kings that proved disastrous for the Devils.   King’s Captain Dustin Brown scored early in the power-play to take the lead and then seemed to have scored again a minute and a half later to expand the lead.  It wasn’t noticeable originally but upon further review, it showed that Brown wasn’t the one that had scored that important second goal.  Upon further and a closer review, one could see Brown skating with the puck into an open lane and firing towards the net but like a shark sniffing blood in the water, Carter positioned himself in front of the net and expertly tipped Brown’s shot past a helpless Brodeur.  The banished player who was exiled out of Philadelphia, had just scored what turned to be the Stanley Cup winning goal! That would be enough to satisfy any player but Carter wasn’t done yet.  Later in the game, with the Kings completely dominating the embarrassed New Jersey Devils, Jeff Carter would get another goal, this time with another breathtaking wrist shot.  The Los Angeles King’s won the game 6-1 and won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Jeff Carter had scored 8 goals and 13 points in that 2012 Stanley Cup run with most of his points happening when it mattered most in the last 2 series.  Still a lot of people (including myself) weren’t convinced of his worth.  Though he was a large contributor to the Cup win and was recognized as so, he was still overshadowed by the play of teammates Jonathan Quick, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Dustin Brown and even Mike Richards.  More needed to be done in order for him to stand out on a team with no lack of star power and determination.  In 2013, this would happen.