Until Tuesday night in the desert, Jeff Carter had all of one goal in 10 playoff games this spring.
He collected 3 more against the Coyotes during a 4-0 rout that puts the LA Kings just two wins away from the Stanley Cup Final - place they haven't been since 1993.
"Obviously, I'd love to be scoring every game," Carter said in the post-game presser. "They haven't come that easily for me the last little while here.
"It's something that I've been working on in practice, trying to get to the net during the
game, get a couple greasy ones. I was lucky enough tonight."
He said he was very aware of his slump.
"It's always in the back of your mind." Carter said. "I tried to keep patient and keep working in practice, like I said, during the games trying to get to the net, trying to get a
couple good bounces there. Lucky enough to get a couple today. It's a good start."
When KIngs GM Dean Lombardi went out Carter at the trade deadline after failing to get Rick Nash out of Columbus, I felt Lombardi had settled on second-best and that Carter would again get hurt and come up small in the playoffs because of injury.
Hasn't happened and it looks like he and his best buddy Mike Richards will rub it into the wounds of Flyers fans by making the Cup Final.
In so many ways, that's the usual Philadelphia story.
When these playoffs began, I had Nashville as the team that would go the deepest. The Kings had to scramble just to get the 8th seed.
But their goalie, Jonathan Quick, got hot and things quickly fell into place.
"We were a confident group coming in [to the playoffs]," Carter said. "We had to battle hard the last month of the season just to get in.
"Pretty much playing playoff hockey all
the way through there. I think that's helped us carry over playing into the playoffs. We just kept rolling."
And I don't see them getting stopped en route to the Final, either.