GDT: Carolinan Hurrikaanit continue their winstreak against the New Jerseyn Paholaiset

[GoldiFox]

Last shipment of Hawks was a bit lite. At least TVR looks like a decent 3rd pairing D.

 

[My Special Purpose]

Don't quite understand what age has to do with it. Tim Thomas wasn't **** until he was 32 years old so saying he can't figure it out because he's 29 doesn't make much sense to me

I agree saying his career is over is an overstatement. But he simply can't play again this year if we really want to win a hockey game. This is a big pickle for RF/BP. How they deal with this will go a long way toward determining how they are viewed by Dundon. I'm interested to see what they do.

I don't expect a column from Luke tonight (for tomorrow) since he didn't attend the game. Being on the road also probably contributed to Darling starting tonight. I'm sure the entire organization had to answer exactly *zero* tough questions regarding their goaler after the game.

 

[MinJaBen]

14th

15th

 

[The Faulker 27]

I didn't have a problem starting Darling although I knew he'd let in a couple of softies to deflate the team. I have a problem with throwing in the towel by letting him play the 3rd. What has he accomplished in his time here to give them the confidence in that decision? I don't accept the argument that Ward would have to play tomorrow. It's one period not 3. Give your team the chance to mount a come back, maybe get the win, and ride high back to Raleigh. They have 5 days off after Sunday for f***s sake. Peters is a moron.

 

[SaskCanesFan]

I'm just showing up after having watched the game on PVR, haven't read this thread so don't know how feelings are.

Scott Darling you just single handedly lost this game. Absolutely inexcusable, how the f*** does a weak wide angle shot end up in the 2nd goal. f*** off, I don't care about your earlier Twitter exchange this year, you aren't an NHL goalie. f*** you and your sister too. And thank god for mini fridge of beer. Hey at least she finally responded to me saying you suck so that's kinda cool. Almost makes up for the soon to be lost season

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I thought conditioning had to have a missed game due to injury. I don't think the NHLPA would agree with it here, but I could be wrong as I don't know conditioning stint rules, just seems..odd.

Someone whack him in practice tomorrow, problem solved. I imagine there will be plenty of willing volunteers.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

His NHL career isn't over. Ward had a .897 in 60 starts his first year as a starter.

He's a dumpster fire right now but to say his NHL career is over is ridiculous.

and a goaltender with a .900 in the AHL isn't the answer

A .900 AHL goaler isn't necessary not the answer either.

 

[Brock Anton]

Whoever is the other goalie on the roster with Ward, no matter how good they were on their prior team, inexplicably loses all ability to stop hockey pucks.

Cam Ward is a voodoo doctor.

 

[Incubajerks]

Darling did his part for sure but I didn't like the fact that we really suffered their forechecking in the sense that we may don't matchup well with them. We really need the W tonight.

 

[Kaako Kappo]

I'd like to say that if we start Darling then i get released from all my statements that happened before the game.

The team did not look like they want to be in the playoffs.

Not a game they wanted to lose.

 

[JCLA]

I agree saying his career is over is an overstatement. But he simply can't play again this year if we really want to win a hockey game. This is a big pickle for RF/BP. How they deal with this will go a long way toward determining how they are viewed by Dundon. I'm interested to see what they do.

I don't expect a column from Luke tonight (for tomorrow) since he didn't attend the game. Being on the road also probably contributed to Darling starting tonight. I'm sure the entire organization had to answer exactly *zero* tough questions regarding their goaler after the game.

I don't disagree with that. I just disagree with the notion he's never going to be an NHL goaltender again

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

We need to face that we're screwed, and we're just going to have to deal with Darling, at least once per back-to-back the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, that's the reality of it. We have 25 games left. Not counting tonight, 6 are back to back games, so we have to assume that Cam will likely get at least 19 of those games and Darling will get at most, 6. Our B2B's are:

vs. Pitts - At Det.
At Phil - vs. NJ
At NYR - vs. Bos.
vs. PHI - At NYI
vs. OTT - At NJ
At WSH - vs. NYR

Does Peters just play Darling against the tougher teams, knowing that we have less of a chance of winning those? Does he try to put Ward out against the teams we are in direct competition with (NJ, NYI)? Does he try to sneak Ward in for both games for 1-2 of the B2B games? If Ward gets hurt and can't go, this team is really f***ed.

RF gambled on a goalie fix this offseason and I don't blame him for doing that, he needed to make a move. Unfortunately, the gamble didn't work out, at least for the first season.

 

[AD Skinner]

Those divisional back to backs are playoff games. They will decide how this season ends up

 

[Svechhammer]

We're surprised that Darling played like ass in a division game? The is what he does.

I'm just more concerned with how his sister is going to blame everything on the rest of the team after yet another bed wetting.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

that first goal in the third was especially killer because we had about 9 minutes straight of offensive zone time and were putting a lot of strong chances on new jersey, then they get one semi-decent chance and he gives up a weak 2 on 1 goal. then they score again right away and all the momentum we came out with was toast at that point. seemed like it would be just a matter of time until we scored in the third the way we played the first 9 minutes.

 

[GoldiFox]

that first goal in the third was especially killer because we had about 9 minutes straight of offensive zone time and were putting a lot of strong chances on new jersey, then they get one semi-decent chance and he gives up a weak 2 on 1 goal. then they score again right away and all the momentum we came out with was toast at that point. seemed like it would be just a matter of time until we scored in the third the way we played the first 9 minutes.

Put me officially on the "Fire Peters" bandwagon. Mind bogglingly stupid decision to keep Darling in and throw away a salvageable game.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Continuing to play Scott Darling at this point is sunk cost fallacy at its worst.

Waiving him has little risk, because (a) it's highly unlikely that someone picks him up at that salary, (b) even if they do, it's unlikely that he becomes a great starting goalie anywhere else playing like that and we escape a bad contract, (c) he clearly can't improve mentally under NHL pressure right now, (d) a decent .900 AHL goalie gives us as much of a chance to win without the baggage, (e) there's a chance of salvaging his game in Charlotte so he regains some value next year, either playing or trading, (f) buyout is still the worst case and it's still available should we need it.

I see literally no downside to waiving him today, when his value is at its lowest.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

The only real risk is that someone else claims him off waivers and he magically becomes a #1 goalie for them. I think that's an acceptable risk at this point.

 

[The Faulker 27]

Continuing to play Scott Darling at this point is sunk cost fallacy at its worst.

Waiving him has little risk, because (a) it's highly unlikely that someone picks him up at that salary, (b) even if they do, it's unlikely that he becomes a great starting goalie anywhere else playing like that and we escape a bad contract, (c) he clearly can't improve mentally under NHL pressure right now, (d) a decent .900 AHL goalie gives us as much of a chance to win without the baggage, (e) there's a chance of salvaging his game in Charlotte so he regains some value next year, either playing or trading, (f) buyout is still the worst case and it's still available should we need it.

I see literally no downside to waiving him today, when his value is at its lowest.

I wish I could like this 10 times. I don't understand the decision to keep putting Darling out there. We're the closest to a playoff birth in years, the very thing our new billionaire owner has challenged both Francis, and Peters with. Yet, as we saw last night, he can't put together a consistent performance. We don't need a #1 or #2 at this point. We need someone that can literally be below average as opposed to utter garbage, and that will still give us a better chance than we have right now with this pylon in net.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Maybe a dumb question. I don't see goalies traded at the deadline very often. If a guy, say Lehner, was traded to Carolina, how much of an adjustment period would there be coming into a totally different system, especially since goalies seem to struggle when they get here.

It can't be any worse than Darling, I was just wondering how much better it would be (vs. calling up an AHLr?)

 

[RodTheBawd]

I'm just showing up after having watched the game on PVR, haven't read this thread so don't know how feelings are.

Scott Darling you just single handedly lost this game. Absolutely inexcusable, how the **** does a weak wide angle shot end up in the 2nd goal. **** off, I don't care about your earlier Twitter exchange this year, you aren't an NHL goalie. **** you and your sister too. And thank god for mini fridge of beer. Hey at least she finally responded to me saying you suck so that's kinda cool. Almost makes up for the soon to be lost season

It's fun to laugh about his sister's twitter, it's going too far to actually message her. That's some creepy internet bullying type shit.

The only real risk is that someone else claims him off waivers and he magically becomes a #1 goalie for them. I think that's an acceptable risk at this point.

Buahahahaha.... "risk", good one Hank.

 

[The Faulker 27]

Hell, put a dumpster out there and light it on fire. It would stop more pucks than Darling.

 

[geehaad]

Remember last year when we were wondering out loud what kind of team in playoff position would ever want to trade for a #1 goaltender at the TDL?

 

[JCLA]

I believe the only team that did still didn't make the playoffs.

I don't mean this as the same result would happen for us. I'm just pointing it out

 

[tarheelhockey]

Don't quite understand what age has to do with it. Tim Thomas wasn't **** until he was 32 years old so saying he can't figure it out because he's 29 doesn't make much sense to me

Age has something to do with it because you’re comparing

1) a 22 year old with a Conn Smythe, making $700K and playing backup-quality goal as he struggles to adjust to a 60 game workload

2) a 29 year old making $4M who has never played more than 42 games in a season at any level (junior, minor league, pro), playing sub-NHL quality goal as he struggles to handle 1 start per week

And that’s if you’re ONLY looking at the numbers. With Ward you had a guy who had visible potential, and while he was obviously unhappy with his results, he was also obviously dialed in and developing.

Darling came here as a guy with a checkered personal history, immediately provoked questions about his conditioning, and is now visibly crumpling under pressure. I keep saying “yips” as a baseball analogy, but honestly it’s rare to see an NHL goalie fold mentally the way he has over the past few months. That kind of response to failure is not a predictor of someone destined for future success in the NHL. Nobody wants a goalie who has collapsed mentally more than once.

So while it’s maybe an exaggeration to say it’s all over for him, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say his career is on a thread and it’s VERY unlikely anyone picks him up if it gets to the point of a buyout. Not just because it means he’ll have continued to play terribly, but also because he has nothing comparable to Tim Thomas level confidence and determination.