Darling

[The Stranger]

Many have hit on it...but his mental game is rough shape right now...no confidence...terrible body language...you can see him having a mini-meltdown after each goal he lets in. It's tough to watch. He had some nice numbers playing backup on a very good team...thought this was his big chance to shine as a number 1 and he's flailing...I'm sure it's devastating.

I felt a similar way for Ward in the 2013-14 season...he was coming off the MCL injury and Khudobin was playing well. He had some big struggles physically and mentally that season. To his credit, he worked through it and is back to a good place.

There was some debate about how to try and work with Darling to get his confidence back...either reduce his workload with the Canes or send him to Charlotte for a low pressure and heavy workload. Early on I agreed with keeping him with the club, give him a reduced work load, and try to get some small, simple, wins in his game to rebuild his mental state....they've tried this and it's not working.

In a vacuum, moving him to Charlotte and promoting Ned is the right thing to do...however RF just owned the Kruger mistake...sent ~$2.2MM in salary down to the Checkers...now is he really going to put an additional $4.75MM in salary in the minors.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Darling is toast this season. For whatever reason, he just doesn't have it. I don't know if that means waiving him so he can find his game in Charlotte (being waived and unclaimed could totally embarrass him and wreck what self-esteem he has left), or calling up Ned and locking Darling in the press box to feel sorry for himself.

I don't think Francis will be looking at a buyout this summer, and I don't think there's any market for Darling and his contract, so he'll probably get this offseason to get his fundamentals right and try again next season.

Why in God's name can't we ever get our goaltending situation un****ed?

I'd wager it's been a combination of

• Guys who are decent AHL goalies but not very good in the NHL (Leighton, Peters)
• Guys whose careers were coming to an end for one reason or another (Grahame, Legace, Boucher)
• Guys who started out promising but were asked to change their styles up by the coaching staff and rendering them less effective (Khudobin, Lack)
  
• Guys who looked better as a result of the system they played in/were given sheltered starts (Grahame, Lack, Darling)
  
• Guys who were forced to play behind defenses that iced guys like Josef Melichar, Tomas Kaberle, Bobby Sanguinetti, Derek Joslin, Ian White, Alexandre Picard, and the assorted other motley crew of Canes defensemen (Ward, Grahame, Leighton, Peters, Boucher, Darling, Ellis...aw hell, just about everybody EXCEPT maybe Lack and Darling)

I can't quite recall enough about Ellis (aside from that injury where he ended up slicing his own leg/calf with his skate blade) to pigeonhole him in one of those categories.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

In a vacuum, moving him to Charlotte and promoting Ned is the right thing to do...however RF just owned the Kruger mistake...sent ~$4MM in salary down to the Checkers...now is he really going to put an additional $4.75MM in salary in the minors.

It's ~ $2.2M in salary for Jooris/Kruger (~$4M in cap). IIRC, Chicago paid Kruger's bonus, so the Canes are on the hook for only about $1.5M of Kruger's salary this season. Even with that, 2/3rds of that was already sunk with the 50 or so games they were on the Canes roster.

You do make a good point about will RF really own another mistake though and send him down. I agree with you that at this point, he needs to go down there and try to rebuild his game and mental state. Giving him infrequent starts here and hoping he comes through isn't working.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

guys his sister just complimented me for referring to him as scott "satan" darling on twitter

 

[DaveG]

Many have hit on it...but his mental game is rough shape right now...no confidence...terrible body language...you can see him having a mini-meltdown after each goal he lets in. It's tough to watch. He had some nice numbers playing backup on a very good team...thought this was his big chance to shine as a number 1 and he's flailing...I'm sure it's devastating.

I felt a similar way for Ward in the 2013-14 season...he was coming off the MCL injury and Khudobin was playing well. He had some big struggles physically and mentally that season. To his credit, he worked through it and is back to a good place.

There was some debate about how to try and work with Darling to get his confidence back...either reduce his workload with the Canes or send him to Charlotte for a low pressure and heavy workload. Early on I agreed with keeping him with the club, give him a reduced work load, and try to get some small, simple, wins in his game to rebuild his mental state....they've tried this and it's not working.

In a vacuum, moving him to Charlotte and promoting Ned is the right thing to do...however RF just owned the Kruger mistake...sent ~$4MM in salary down to the Checkers...now is he really going to put an additional $4.75MM in salary in the minors.

I have little doubt that Krueger will be sent elsewhere at the deadline with some retention though. As shitty as it is, demoting Darling is likely the right move here.

 

[The Stranger]

It's ~ $2.2M in salary for Jooris/Kruger (~$4M in cap). IIRC, Chicago paid Kruger's bonus, so the Canes are on the hook for only about $1.5M of Kruger's salary this season. Even with that, 2/3rds of that was already sunk with the 50 or so games they were on the Canes roster.

You're right. When I looked up salaries on capfriendly, Kruger is listed at $3,475,000 for this season and $2,300,000 for next...but I see now by looking at his contract details that $2MM of his salary was a bonus.

 

[The Faulker 27]

guys his sister just complimented me for referring to him as scott "satan" darling on twitter

I'd like retweet this, but I only have a Myspace account.

 

[MinJaBen]

That and the fact that Chicago seemed to try to shelter his starts are what gave me pause - there were a few posters here who did claim, however, that Darling did extremely well on high-danger shots and would be a significant upgrade from Ward.

I was one of the posters claiming he did well on HDS% because he did. His HDS% and MDS% were very good and better than Ward's last year. Clearly, that didn't translate well when moving teams.

 

[Svechhammer]

In all seriousness.... If we want to get our goalie situation un-f'd, we need to sack up and pay for it. Karmanos ran this team on a penny pinching budget, why are we surprised we're getting penny pinching quality out of our non-Ward tenders?

Dundon says he isn't afraid to spend to compete. This offseason is his chance to prove it. Outside of the obvious (pull a Brinks truck filled with straight cash homie up to John Tavares' house, and just start stacking Benjamins until he agrees on a price) the number one thing he could do to make this team good is to go out and buy a proven goalie. I think Ward is showing this year he still absolutely has some left in the tank to the point where even a quality backup would be ok, but the priority should be finding a guy you think will spend the next 10 years between the pipes in Raleigh and locking it down.

What's scary about this team right now is that we're one injury to Ward away from being a truly horrendous team.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

In all seriousness.... If we want to get our goalie situation un-f'd, we need to sack up and pay for it. Karmanos ran this team on a penny pinching budget, why are we surprised we're getting penny pinching quality out of our non-Ward tenders?

Dundon says he isn't afraid to spend to compete. This offseason is his chance to prove it. Outside of the obvious (pull a Brinks truck filled with straight cash homie up to John Tavares' house, and just start stacking Benjamins until he agrees on a price) the number one thing he could do to make this team good is to go out and buy a proven goalie. I think Ward is showing this year he still absolutely has some left in the tank to the point where even a quality backup would be ok, but the priority should be finding a guy you think will spend the next 10 years between the pipes in Raleigh and locking it down.

What's scary about this team right now is that we're one injury to Ward away from being a truly horrendous team.

We've been over this. The type of goalie of which you speak generally isn't available via free agency. Your UFA goalies this offseason:

Richard Bachman
Jonathan Bernier
Reto Berra
Joe Cannata
Aaron Dell
Jeff Glass
Jaroslav Halak
Andrew Hammond
Michael Hutchinson
Carter Hutton
Chad Johnson
Anton Khudobin
Darcy Kuemper
Eddie Lack
Kari Lehtonen
Michael Leighton
Anders Lindback
Tom McCollum
Mike McKenna
Antti Niemi
Edward Pasquale
Ondrej Pavelec
Aantti Raanta
Harri Sateri
Jeremy Smith
Niklas Svedberg
Danny Taylor
Dustin Tokarski
Cam Ward
Jeff Zatkoff

That's a lot of backup/1B (at best) type goalies. Who's the proven goalie there that you go out and buy that pushes Ward into a backup role?

 

[RodTheBawd]

I don't care about pushing Ward into a backup role. I care about finding a competent enough replacement for Darling that could prevent us from having to start Ward 60+. Dell and Raanta should be able to do at least that.

 

[MinJaBen]

I don't care about pushing Ward into a backup role. I care about finding a competent enough replacement for Darling that could prevent us from having to start Ward 60+. Dell and Raanta should be able to do at least that.

And given what has happened this year, we may also want to check out RFAs that the current team may want to move on from for one reason or another. Grubauer comes to mind as a guy that may be available due to team cap, arbitration, and a cheaper prospect they want to elevate. This would allow us to sign a much shorter "audition" contract than a UFA might bargain for like Darling's four years.

That said, of the guys I was most interested in last year (I proposed Darling, Grubauer, and Dell), Dell had the best numbers but the lowest sample size at the time. This year seems to have born out his ability to handle a larger role that would approximate what I think we would be looking for in a 60/40 split with Ward. And Dell has looked fantastic.

 

[Svechhammer]

We've been over this. The type of goalie of which you speak generally isn't available via free agency. Your UFA goalies this offseason:

Richard Bachman
Jonathan Bernier
Reto Berra
Joe Cannata
Aaron Dell
Jeff Glass
Jaroslav Halak
Andrew Hammond
Michael Hutchinson
Carter Hutton
Chad Johnson
Anton Khudobin
Darcy Kuemper
Eddie Lack
Kari Lehtonen
Michael Leighton
Anders Lindback
Tom McCollum
Mike McKenna
Antti Niemi
Edward Pasquale
Ondrej Pavelec
Aantti Raanta
Harri Sateri
Jeremy Smith
Niklas Svedberg
Danny Taylor
Dustin Tokarski
Cam Ward
Jeff Zatkoff

That's a lot of backup/1B (at best) type goalies. Who's the proven goalie there that you go out and buy that pushes Ward into a backup role?

I'd take a chance on anyone who has shown he has an ability to play at a high level behind a good defense when asked to make a run. Off that list, I'd target the likes of Niemi, Leighton and Halak. Not guys that would necessarily turn into the next great elite goalies, but guys who have proven they can hold the fort down when asked. Guys who have made postseason runs where a change of scenery might be all it takes to get back into form. What I have no desire to ever see out of this franchise in the near future is to see us try and bring in a career backup and anoint him our starter and savior.

I think at least something like that would be serviceable here. Outside of that, finding a guy who has proven himself capable in the past to at best be a decent backup, I'd say pull the trigger on a trade to get a quality goalie away from a team looking to begin a rebuild.

But yeah, right now we have a crisis at goalie. We are one injury to Ward away from the season legitimately collapsing upon itself. You can't trust Darling to be the guy in spot starts, and if that happens, its an unequivocal disaster. We absolutely cannot go into next season like this, and if you ask me, we can't even let the trade deadline lapse with this kind of situation.

 

[DaveG]

We had Leighton last year. He was dog shit.
I'd be willing to bet that Niemi is just flat out done as well.

 

[Breakdowns]

Only guy I would even think about from your three mentions is Halak.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

I'd take a chance on anyone who has shown he has an ability to play at a high level behind a good defense when asked to make a run. Off that list, I'd target the likes of Niemi, Leighton and Halak. Not guys that would necessarily turn into the next great elite goalies, but guys who have proven they can hold the fort down when asked. Guys who have made postseason runs where a change of scenery might be all it takes to get back into form. What I have no desire to ever see out of this franchise in the near future is to see us try and bring in a career backup and anoint him our starter and savior.

I think at least something like that would be serviceable here. Outside of that, finding a guy who has proven himself capable in the past to at best be a decent backup, I'd say pull the trigger on a trade to get a quality goalie away from a team looking to begin a rebuild.

But yeah, right now we have a crisis at goalie. We are one injury to Ward away from the season legitimately collapsing upon itself. You can't trust Darling to be the guy in spot starts, and if that happens, its an unequivocal disaster. We absolutely cannot go into next season like this, and if you ask me, we can't even let the trade deadline lapse with this kind of situation.

You have to be kidding me. Niemi got waived by the Pens after playing 3 games with them and putting up a 7.50 GAA/.797 save percentage. The Panthers picked him up on waivers and he posted a 5.08 GAA/.853 percentage over 2 games with them. He's settled down over the 7 games he's played in Montreal but he's still not what he once was.

A third Michael Leighton tenure with the Hurricanes? Pass, especially after how he looked last season. He's a good story but he's an AHL goalie. I'd rather Dell or Raanta if we target a UFA goalie.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

I'd like retweet this, but I only have a Myspace account.

she also just said that satan cant be a meme anymore because namecalling isnt memes. guys guess we cant call dave satan anymore :/

 

[AD Skinner]

I've only seen Dell play the canes but he has seemed rock solid in those games

 

[The Faulker 27]

I beginning to think Sarah Darling is Scott Darling.

 

[Wolfpuck]

I beginning to think Sarah Darling is Scott Darling.

Detachable beard + blond wig...

FINKLE IS EINHORN!

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Detachable beard + blond wig...

FINKLE IS EINHORN!

Blonde? You might want to get the color balance on your TV checked...

That looks ginger to me.

 

[Wolfpuck]

Blonde? You might want to get the color balance on your TV checked...

That looks ginger to me.

His sister is blond. She probably colors it, though.

 

[The Faulker 27]

His sister is blond. She probably colors it, though.

But who is who?

 

[Wolfpuck]

But who is who?

I'm sticking with my theory that Scott's beard is fake and that he puts on a blond wig to tweet as "Sarah."

 

[tarheelhockey]

His sister is blond. She probably colors it, though.

Only one way to find out.


Ask her.