Empty Thoughts: Penguins 5, Devils 2

Observations from the Penguins’ 5-2 win against the Devils:

First things first, there was no update on forward Frederick Gaudreau following the game. He left the contest late in the second period due to an undisclosed injury.

The Penguins might have found a pretty solid replacement should Gaudreau be sidelined for any length of time.

Early Monday morning, they acquired forward Jeff Carter from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for two conditional draft picks, a 2022 third-round pick and a 2023 fourth-round pick.

Carter, 36, is in the 10th year of an 11-year contract he signed as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 that carries a a salary cap hit of $5,272,727. With the Kings retaining half of his salary, the Penguins are only on the hook for $2,636,364 of his cap hit.

How does Carter fit in?

There really are no shortages of possibilities.

In the short-term, he can boost the second line as a right winger. Evan Rodrigues has filled in aptly in that role with Kasperi Kapanen sidelined due to an undisclosed injury. But Carter would represent an immediate upgrade.

Looking a bit longer term, Carter would likely be a third-line right winger. While he has played extensively at center throughout his career, Carter is primarily a right winger at this stage.

Assuming forward Evgeni Malkin returns from injury, Jared McCann could move to the left wing of the second line. That would move Jason Zucker to the left wing of the third line. With Zucker and Carter on the flanks, the Penguins could use the likes of Teddy Blueger, Gaudreau, Rodrigues or even Mark Jankowski to center a third line.

Ideally, Blueger would remain as center between Zach Aston-Reese and Brandon Tanev on a buzzsaw of a fourth line, but lineups are written in pencil, not pen.

At worse, Carter can be a really good fourth-liner.

Additionally, Carter has ample experience on special teams. This season, he has averaged 2:16 of ice time on the power play and 1:01 with the penalty kill.

Make no mistake, Jeff Carter isn’t what he once was. He is no longer a 40-goal threat and is not the entity that was a driving force behind the Kings’ Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014.

But he still has some speed, slick hands and can create offense when the opportunity presents itself. As the Kings’ leading shooter this season with 117 shots, he’s not shy about putting pucks on net.

By most measures, he’s an upgrade over what the Penguins have been using on their bottom two lines for much of the past two months.

And he comes at a fairly cheap rate (for example, McCann’s cap hit is $2.94 million). Additionally, the Penguins did not give up any high-end future assets.

(That said, neither team explained the conditions on the draft picks. If one of the conditions allows either pick to become something like a first- or second-rounder, that changes the evaluation a bit).

Beyond this season, Carter’s arrival complicates things a bit for management as it deals with what will presumably be a flat salary cap hit going into next season, the expansion draft and the long-term futures of Malkin as well as defenseman Kris Letang who will each be entering the final years of their contracts.

But they’ll cross that bridge in due time.

For now, the Penguins are a better, deeper team with Jeff Carter.

What happened

The Penguins opened scoring 2:35 into regulation. Taking a pass out of the defensive zone by Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson, forward Colton Sceviour pushed play up the right wing on a three-on-one rush and fed a pass to the left circle for Blueger who had his wrister blocked by Devils defenseman Ty Smith. Sceviour claimed the rebound behind the cage and tucked in a wraparound forehand shot past the right skate of goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. It was Sceviour’s fourth goal of the season and second in as many games. Blueger and defenseman Marcus Pettersson had assists.

Sceviour struck again at 5:26 of the first period. After Blueger beat Devils forward Pavel Zacha on a faceoff in the Devils’ left circle, Penguins defenseman Cody Ceci controlled the puck at the left point and slid a pass to the center point where defenseman Mike Matheson chopped a one-timer. Sceviour established position inside the left circle against Devils defenseman Damon Severson and re-directed the puck with his stick under Blackwood’s blocker on the near side. Assists went to Matheson and Ceci.

The Devils got on the scoreboard at 17:14 of the first. Rushing up the right wing of the offensive zone, Devils defenseman Sami Vatanen snapped a pass to the front of the crease. Devils forward Miles Wood fended off a furious backcheck by Sceviour and tapped the puck with his forehand past the left skate of goaltender Tristan Jarry for his 14th goal. Vatanen and forward Jesper Bratt recorded assists.

Despite being outplayed for most of the second period, the Penguins made it a 3-1 game late in the middle frame at the 19:20 mark. After Guentzel and linemate Sidney Crosby hounded Severson into a turnover behind his own net, Crosby was denied in tight on a wrister by Blackwood. The ensuing rebound slid to the right point where it was corralled by Letang who then fed the puck to defenseman Brian Dumoulin at the left point. From there Dumoulin distributed a pass to Rust in the slot. Rust motioned above the left circle and lifted a wrister. Guentzel was planted in front on the sequence and the puck glanced off of him — his glove, perhaps — and past the blocker of Blackwood on the near side for his 18th goal. Rust and Dumoulin had assists.

The Devils issued a coach’s challenge citing goaltender interference on Crosby who shoved Smith into Blackwood but following a thorough review, the challenge was denied and the Devils were issued a delay of game penalty.

The Penguins converted the ensuing power-play chance 1:19 into the third period. Corralling a puck behind the Devils’ net, McCann slid a pass to the right circle for Rust. Fending off a check from Devils forward Andreas Johnsson, Rust moved the puck to the left of the crease where Guentzel tapped in his team-leading 18th goal. Rust and McCann tallied assists.

The Devils got their second goal at 7:30 thanks to a dazzling effort by Devils defenseman P.K. Subban. Gaining the offensive zone, Subban deked around Matheson and Ceci en route to the cage and pushed a forehand shot (along with Jarry) into the cage. Officials initially waved the goal off as they determined Subban interfered with Jarry. Following a lengthy review, the on-ice call was overturned and Subban was awarded his fourth goal of the season. There were no assists.

An empty-net goal by Guentzel at 18:37 of the third period completed the hat trick and secured victory. Crosby and Matheson had assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Devils controlled shots, 30-24.

• Guentzel led the game with five shots.

• Bratt and forward Jack Hughes each led the Devils with four shots.

• Crosby led the game with 21:42 of ice time on 29 shifts.

• Smith led the Devils with 21:15 of ice time on 22 shifts.

• The Devils had a 30-27 edge in faceoffs (53%).

• Hughes was 10 for 17 (59%).

• Crosby was 13 for 28 (46%).

• McCann and Devils forward Michael McLeod each led the game with four blocked shots.

• Jarry made 28 saves on 30 shots.

• Blackwood made 19 saves on 23 shots.

Randomly speaking

• What a couple of days for Sceviour. On Friday, he scored his first goal in nearly two months. On Saturday, he was waived. On Sunday, he cleared waivers and scored two goals.

They were greasy goals too. The first was just him claiming a rebound and jamming it in. The second was him winning a positional battle and tipping it. For someone who is in a day-to-day battle to stay in the lineup, he won this day.

• The Penguins were pretty lousy for most of the second period. They were outshot 14-6 and spent most of the middle frame in their own zone. The Devils just don’t have enough talent to fully take advantage of all their opportunities. But despite playing poorly for most of the period, the Penguins were able to cobble together one strong shift late and make it a two-goal game.

• Blueger returned to the lineup after missing 13 games due to an undisclosed injury. Primarily deployed on the fourth line, presumably to ease back into the lineup, Blueger logged 13:44 of ice time on 24 shifts and had one shot, one blocked shot and was 6 for 14 on faceoffs (46%).

• With Blueger back, Jankowski was the odd man out, despite entering the game on a career-best four-game scoring streak.

Jankowski has largely failed to live up to even the most modest of expectations with the Penguins. But if he’s the Penguins’ 13th or 14th or 15th forward, that’s not a bad problem to have. That’s a pretty good sign of the depth this organization has accrued over the past seven months.

• Pettersson had a pretty nice pass out of the defensive zone to set up Sceviour’s first goal. He did something similar on Thursday in a 5-2 road win against the New York Rangers to give rookie forward Radim Zohorna a chance to score a goal.

• Guentzel tied Rust for the league lead in empty-net goals with four. The Penguins lead the entire NHL in empty-net goals with 14.

Historically speaking

• Guentzel’s hat trick — which became official when the NHL announced a scoring change at approximately 11:36 p.m. — was the Penguins’ first hat trick against the Devils in quite some time.

Crosby recorded three goals and an assist against goaltender Scott Clemmensen in a 4-1 win at the Mellon Arena on Nov. 29, 2008.

• Dumoulin established a new career-high with a five-game scoring streak (two goals, three assists).

• Sceviour’s last two-goal game came as a member of the Florida Panthers in a 5-4 overtime home loss to the New York Rangers, Nov. 4, 2017.

• Devils rookie forward Marian Studenic made his NHL debut.

Publicly speaking

• Sceviour was upbeat, even with the waivers process. He was asked what it’s been like with so many ups and downs:

“They’ve mostly been up. We’ve been winning hockey games. I feel like I’ve been contributing helping the team do so and that’s all I’ve been focused on.

“If anyone has been paying attention this year, not a lot of guys are getting picked up. Teams don’t have a lot of cap space. Once that I went on, I was pretty sure I was going to clear. I was just focused on getting ready for today’s game. That was kind of my mindset the last 48 hours.”

• Guentzel was happy for Sceviour after an uncertain 48 hours or so:

“It’s huge. A guy that comes to the rink every day with a smile and works hard. It’s always nice to see a guy like that get rewarded. Really happy for him. Just this last two-game stretch for him to score two goals, it’s been big goals for us. We’re definitely lucky to have him.”

• Even with the trade deadline looming, Sceviour is focused solely on the Penguins’ next game:

“You look at this roster, we’re winning a lot of games right now with guys out. When we’re healthy, this is a heck of a team. Obviously, you never know what happens this time of year. But I’m focusing on getting ready for the (Penguins’ next game at home against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday) and helping this team win down the stretch.”

• Sullivan on the bottom-six reserves:

“Their play speaks volumes for how good of players they are. That’s such an important aspect of winning in this league. That’s how you weather some of the injuries that we’ve endured here over the course of a season. If these players haven’t stepped in and been impactful players, then it’s hard to win games consistently.

“To get the supporting cast to contribute offensively and be sound defensively and do some of the other jobs, whether it be killing penalties or taking defensive zone starts, things of that nature, all of those little things add up to winning games. These guys have stepped in and really maximized the opportunity that’s been given to them. It speaks volumes for how good of players they are. These guys are NHL players.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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