It’s Time: Sullivan Has to Make Changes; Carter Must Sit

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the New York Rangers Thursday, and with the defeat, said goodbye to even the most hopeful prayer of finishing third in the Metro Division. It was their second straight haphazard effort leading to a loss, and allowed the Florida Panthers to close within three points of a playoff spot.

This keyboard recently offered some encouraging analysis of 38-year-old Penguins forward Jeff Carter. For a moment, it seemed he could pull out of the season-long spiral that has caused him to go from an exciting fan favorite last season to a vilified meme the next.

The uptick was short-lived.

The slide has worsened, and Carter seems to be at rock-bottom … or 50 feet below it.

Thursday, in the biggest game of their season, the Penguins submitted a sloppy, mistake-filled 4-2 loss.

And the Penguins’ usual goats, not GOATS, were front-and-center, with turnovers and missed assignments. Mike Sullivan said the team displayed a team-wide “lack of urgency.”

Carter’s even-strength detriment is too great for the rest of the lineup. The defensive-zone cratering cannot be ignored. The rippling effect on the lineup and offensive momentum, the mistakes leading to goals, are hurting the team.

It’s time to scratch Jeff Carter.

For much of the season, Sullivan had few, if any, legitimate options to replace Carter in the lineup. Fans could holler and stomp their feet, but there wasn’t much of a choice to be made.

Now there is an option, and things cannot continue this way.

They just can’t.

Beginning Saturday, Sullivan has real options to make changes.

For the first time in months, the Penguins will have a full complement of forwards. Ryan Poehling was back Thursday, and by the third period, he seemed to have his legs beneath him. The forward who registered the fastest m.p.h., per NHL stats, this season was flying.

“It was the best I’ve felt in two or three months,” Poehling told PHN Friday.

Easing Poehling into the lineup is not necessary. Take advantage of his adrenaline and speed. Sullivan will have the option to put him at the fourth-line center.

And the option to give Jeff Carter a break.

Figuring out how a team in Game No. 68, with so much at stake, could phone it in and commit the same egregious mistakes found in a preseason game is only the starting point for discussing the maddening, inconsistent, volatile, unpredictable, and occasionally disinterested Penguins.

Changes are needed. Attention-grabbing, locker room-noticing, changes.

Carter’s baseline statistics are not eye-popping terrible. He has 24 points, including nine goals in 65 games. He wins 59% of his faceoffs, which is important because he starts only 26% of his shifts in the offensive zone.

But the eyes tell a different story. The missed assignments, the step-slow forecheck, and the increasing domination by opponents put an exclamation point on the struggles and lend a helping hand to opponents. In his 65 games this season, Carter is a team-worst minus-16.

He has the second-worst goals-for of his distinguished career (42%), the lowest scoring chance rate of his career (46%), and the worst high-danger chance rate (45%).

Opponents are getting more shots, chances, and more goals.

And things are getting worse, not better.

Carter has just three goals in the 31 games since the calendar flipped to 2023, and one of those was an empty-netter.

Carter was a minus-4 in six minutes of even-strength ice time vs. the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday. He had a direct hand in at least three Montreal goals.

His awkward pass to P.O Joseph led to the Rangers’ second goal Thursday. Tyler Motte caught Carter and pressured him into a defensive-zone mistake. Joseph could have played it better, but Carter delivered the pizza.

It doesn’t appear Sullivan will scratch Carter Saturday in another battle against the New York Rangers because Danton Heinen was the extra forward at practice Friday.

That’s a mistake that probably is born of deference and respect.

From a Flyers rookie to a two-time Stanley Cup champ with the Los Angeles Kings, Carter’s career has been exemplary. But every player reaches the end. It surely seems Jeff Carter is there.

There’s still too much season at the end of the energy. The Penguins have better options.

It’s time to give Carter a seat.