Jeff Carter on dogs, Mike Richards and being under-the-radar elite for Kings

Jeff and Megan Carter started receiving local support almost immediately after her tweet hit cyberspace.

A Maltese foster dog the couple was housing named Cece was lost. This was an almost tragic event in the Carter household. Megan works with the local charity Wags and Walks and her love of dogs has pulled Jeff into the rescue animal world.

“I never had pets growing up,” Jeff said. “With myself playing hockey all the time and my sister played, we weren’t home enough to have one. I never had anything until I met Megan and now we have three.”

People came to their house to help them and many used the Internet and Twitter to try to give them leads on the dog

Megan also posted signs with photos of the dog around their Hermosa Beach neighborhood. Jeff retweeted her to help get the word out.

Eventually Cece was found after someone called Megan to let her know the dog had been seen near the couple’s home.

“It’s crazy this small community we live in how everybody rallies around that,” Jeff said.

This is just a small window into Jeff Carter’s life with the Los Angeles Kings. He’s happily married, scoring goals and saving animals.

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When you sit down and talk to him, the Kings’ leading scorer (seven goals and eight assists in 16 games) comes off as anything but the surly grouch he’s known as. Just because he often chooses not to talk to the media after every practice and game doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy. It’s just how he operates at this stage of his career.

He smiles, he jokes, he speaks eloquently and honestly.

In Los Angeles, he’s found great balance on the ice as arguably the Kings best forward this season and off the ice in a place where he can just be a married guy with pets who sometimes rides bikes down the Hermosa Beach strand or sits on his patio listening to music.

“I try not to bring this (hockey) home – really since (Megan and I) even started dating, I just kind of – that was kind of my thing was I would leave it at the rink as much as I could,” Carter said. “If you want to do something to take your mind off the game and leave it at the rink. There’s always something for you to do. For me personally this has always been a great spot, just the slow pace of living and the laid back lifestyle it is out here especially in the beach towns. It has worked out real well for me.”

Maybe because he chooses to not open himself up to others is partially why he doesn’t get the public respect he probably should garner as being one of the NHL’s elite talents. Since 2007-08 he hasn’t scored less than 27 goals in a full season. Last season he was plus-267 in shot attempts differential 5-on-5, according to the NHL’s enhanced stats website. The year before he was plus-246.

He’s won two Stanley Cups with the Kings, one Olympic gold medal with Team Canada and he’ll likely hit 300 career goals this season. During the Kings’ 2014 Stanley Cup run he had 25 points in 26 games. Each season in Los Angeles he’s won over 50 percent of his face offs.

The Los Angeles Daily News asked if the Kings are Carter’s team now, which is a fair question.

With Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown slumping, Carter has kept the team’s offense afloat. He’s helped Tyler Toffoli harness his talent, and enabled newly-acquired winger Milan Lucic to find a role on Carter’s line.

“I’ve said it often, this team did not go three years in a row to the conference finals and two to the finals without the centermen that we had, clearly,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. “He was a big part of that. If this team would not have acquired Jeff Carter (in 2012), they probably would not have made the playoffs out there.”

Carter isn’t your conventional center. He’s not like Kopitar, who uses his playmaking talent to push the play. Instead, Carter uses his powerful wrist shot to set up his offense.

Centers aren’t exactly known as ‘shoot-first’ type players. But Carter’s style is just as effective, but in a different way. He currently ranks seventh amongst centers in shots on goal this season.

“He has the speed and he has the shot where he can shoot through you and shoot around you,” defenseman Drew Doughty said.

Said defenseman Alec Martinez, “He has that world class wrister in his shot where as a D man he can sometimes surprise guys just because he has that real quick release, but then again he also has the vision to make that backdoor play or that little play that will lead to a goal.”

Carter’s wrister is one of the more dangerous plays in hockey. He gets an incredible amount of speed and power on it, and his wrists are strong enough that even the quickest of flicks can turn into a scoring chance.

For Carter, it’s a way he can stay consistent. If he doesn’t have his legs that night he can make something happen with the shot. As some players from the 2003 draft class have declined, this has helped Carter to continue to peak as a hockey player. Carter has scored the fourth-most goals from that draft year and notched the seventh-most points.

“Those nights when you’re not feeling well it’s always there in your back pocket,” Carter said of his shot. “As long as you’re getting to those right spots, with the guys I’ve been playing with here, they’re going to find me.”

Offense is no longer Carter’s only attribute. It used to be, but he credits Sutter with bringing along his defensive game – which has become another important part of him as a player.

Last season, Carter played 1:24 per-game on the penalty kill, just 26 seconds per-contest less than Kopitar. This season he’s at 2:03 per-game while Kopitar is at 2:28 per-game.

Though Carter doesn’t have the all-around headiness of Kopitar, he’s not as far off as he was in the past.

“He’s exceptionally well-trained. That’s never been an issue, which gives him durability,” Sutter said. “If you’re talking about consistency or any of that stuff, guys who play a lot of minutes and play a lot of games are usually good players, and if you put Jeff into it, he’s played a lot of playoff games in his career already, so that adds a lot into it, too.”

If Carter has all this talent and put it to use for such a long time, why is he not considered in the top tier of Western Conference centers? His numbers aren’t quite as good as the likes of Kopitar, Jonathan Toews or Ryan Getzlaf, but they’re not far off. If anything, he has averaged more goals per-game during his career, though fewer points per-game.

How his time in Philadelphia trended near the end could play a part. There was the report that former Flyers coach Peter Laviolette put his players on something called “Dry Island” to get them to stop drinking. Carter was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets before the 2011-12 season before being acquired by the Kings for their Stanley Cup push that year.

Carter referenced “Dry Island” but didn’t want to go into detail on that or how his time with the Flyers shaped his current persona.

“With the Dry Island stuff or whatever there’s a lot we can get into there but we won’t and everything happens for a reason, and with me going from Philly to Columbus and then here, it’s all worked out for me. I probably couldn’t have ended up in a better spot for myself personally or my hockey career. It’s been good … it worked out well,” Carter said. “I absolutely loved my time in Philly. The fans there are unbelievable. They’re demanding – which is good. When you’re winning there’s not too many places as good to play as Philly. If you’re losing they’re hard on you but they’re hard on you for a reason – because you’re not performing.”

His association with former Kings forward Mike Richards could also tarnish his image somewhat. Both were teammates in Philadelphia and Richards just saw his contract terminated by the Kings in part because of his association with a border crossing situation involving prescription pain killers.

Carter is quick to point out that he’s his own person, though he and Richards shared success together with multiple Canadian national teams as well as a Flyers 2010 Stanley Cup Final run and two Kings’ Cups.

“All that where ‘it’s me and him is really,’ no offense, but it’s just the media talking,” Carter said. “We played against each other in junior and then we got drafted to Philly together and came in to Philly the same time and World Juniors and pretty much every team we’ve played on since we’ve both been on that team. It’s fair to say, but we were both totally different players and never really played that much together maybe here or there.”

Does he care that he’s considered a very good center, but somehow is one cut below the elite status? That all these factors prevent him from being seen in a different light?

“I’m going to be completely honest with you, it doesn’t bother me,” Carter said.

This is sort of a Kings mantra – which again fits Carter well. The organization likes positive publicity, as do most, but really doesn’t seek it nor crave it. The day will go on with or without credit.

“I don’t need that recognition. I just like to come and do what I do and help the team whatever it may be,” Carter said. “It really, really doesn’t bother me that I don’t get that recognition and I’m totally fine with it.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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