The Pittsburgh Penguins got a historically bad night from one of their most loathed players.
PITTSBURGH - Fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins have been well aware of Jeff Carter’s poor performance through the 2022-23 season.
Carter himself has been aware of it and through injuries and other lineup changes has taken over duties as the fourth line center.
Not a bad spot for him considering his season, but things went from bad to worse against the Montreal Canadiens.
Despite going up 2-0 early in the first, the Penguins allowed the Canadiens to answer with four goals; Carter finished the period as a minus-three.
Jeff Petry and Brian Dumoulin were also minus-threes, but they played far more minutes.
When the final horn rang, the Canadiens not only ended their seven-game losing streak, but Carter finished a minus-four in just over eight minutes of play.
Carter was held to three shifts in the second period and two in the third; it was during one of those two shifts in the final frame that the Canadiens scored to push his +/- down a notch.
Hitting a minus-four in under nine minutes of ice time has happened twice now this season, but only 15 times since 1998.
More often than not, you can throw the +/- statistic in the trash, but when it’s egregious like this it’s noticeable.
Carter isn’t the entire reason the Penguins lost to the Canadiens, but he certainly didn’t help; he may not have been on the ice for long, but his presence was noticed.
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