3 takeaways: Colorado Avalanche take exception to hit on Cale Makar by Penguins' Jeff Carter

Three takeaways from the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2-1 overtime win over Colorado on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena:

Avs react to Carter hit

A scary moment occurred during the third period when Jeff Carter had a nasty collision with Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar.

Carter, breaking in the direction of Colorado’s net, made blindside contact with Makar, who was positioned to the right of the cage, with Carter’s right shoulder striking Makar in the side of the face.

Makar, visibly shaken up by the play, left the ice soon thereafter and then departed the Avalanche bench for the locker room before ultimately returning to the game.

The 24-year-old was on the ice in overtime when Kris Letang won the game for the Penguins.

In Carter’s lengthy NHL career, he has not faced any disciplinary action.

For what it's worth, Carter has no disciplinary history with the NHL in 18 seasons.

No fines, no suspensions.

— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) February 8, 2023

His hit on Makar may well end that trend, setting up a prospective meeting with the NHL Department of Player Safety.

An interview request for Carter following Tuesday’s game was declined by Penguins team officials.

As for Colorado, players and coach Jared Bednar were not shy in voicing displeasure over the incident, which was not penalized on the ice in real time.

“The ref said apparently we ran into each other, but I don’t know how that’s possible,’” Makar told reporters. “(Carter) was coming down the ice.”

Added Bednar: “(Carter) skated right through his head. That’s what I saw.”

Two critical points

Looking across the entire NHL, the Penguins are among the clubs most in need of a major reset post-All-Star break.

That’s a necessity recognized from players in the locker room, to coach Mike Sullivan and up the chain of command to general manager Ron Hextall and beyond.

If the Penguins are going to make the playoffs for the 17th consecutive year, they will need to buckle down, recalibrate and start playing like one of the better teams in the NHL.

As Tuesday’s home game against the Avalanche, the defending Stanley Cup champions, got underway, not much visible evidence could be found to suggest that the Penguins had turned a new leaf following the All-Star festivities.

The Avs ran circles around the Penguins for the majority of the first two periods of play, registering multiple high-quality chances and shots on goal, the vast majority of which were stopped by netminder Casey DeSmith.

In the second period, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon blew by the likes of Marcus Pettersson, Jeff Petry and Carter alike, wrapping around the cage and swinging back to the edge of the right circle before flinging a wrister past DeSmith for the first goal of the game.

Just Nathan MacKinnon getting the legs going after the #NHLAllStar break. ????‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/75Ow2ixggX

— NHL (@NHL) February 8, 2023

The most surprising element of MacKinnon’s goal was that it didn’t come sooner, as the Avs’ alternate captain had plenty of prior good looks that DeSmith fought off.

MacKinnon ended the game with eight shots on goal, leading all Colorado players.

His individual performance would only net his team one point, as the Penguins rallied late in the game, tying things at one with less than four minutes left in regulation before ultimately winning the game in overtime on a goal by Kris Letang.

DeSmith finished with 41 saves on 42 shots

Tuesday represented the 50th game of the year for the Penguins (25-16-9), who are one point behind Washington in the Metropolitan Division (fifth place) and hold the final wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

It hay not have been acquired via a full 60 minutes of well-played hockey, but gaining two points is nonetheless significant for the Penguins.

“Certainly, not the cleanest execution in the first part of the game in any stretch,” Sullivan said postgame. “I know our team is capable of being better, but our guys found a way. I thought we grabbed a hold of it in the third period in particular, and I think that’s something to build on. It’s character win, and it’s something to build on.”

Broader implications

Sullivan and Penguins players may not be impulsively checking the Eastern Conference standings every night to see how other playoffs hopefuls in their neck of the standings are doing, but even still, a tight race is currently underway with significant implications for eventual postseason seeding and matchups.

The New York Rangers (28-14-8), currently third in the Metropolitan, picked up two points in their post-All-Star return to action via an overtime over Calgary on Monday, while the Islanders (27-22-5), who, like the Penguins have 59 points, have already picked up two straight wins and four points, defeating Philadephia on Monday and Seattle on Tuesday.

With the Penguins’ current situation placing them squarely on the playoff bubble, little room for error remains in terms of falling behind in the divisional and conference standings.

Every point matters immensely from here on out, and as Sullivan said, that the Penguins managed to get two of them out of Tuesday’s game against Colorado can be a building-block type of win for a club in desperate need of some momentum.