WRAL: Oh my Darling

[Blueline Bomber]

Oh my...Darling!

Figured this would be a good jumping off point to discuss Scott Darling and his ability to somehow have a worse glove hand than Cam Ward.

Click to read more...

 

[Canes]

Yeah let's re-evaluate the "worse glove hand" when Cam has more of a sample size. And usually large sample sizes aren't kind to the perpetual 6 million dollar back up goaltender.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

thought you were trying to trick me into clicking on a luke decock article

 

[bluedevil58]

Adam Gold is quite the troll. Calling it like it is I guess. Only thing better is if it would come from Tripp. Just once, I want to see him slip up, freak out, and call the current situation like it is. Probably Would be an RGE event though....

 

[Blueline Bomber]

thought you were trying to trick me into clicking on a luke decock article

Unless I'm mistaken, Luke works for the N&O, not WRAL.

 

[Roboturner913]

I mean, whatever, obviously he hasn't been as good as we had hoped. But as I recall, when we signed him it was with kind of a, Well, worst case we could probably make this sort of a 60/40 situation. And I think that's viable. Cam can absolutely still play a high quality game when he's not overworked, but neither is he the kind of guy who can come in cold after two weeks off and be a stud, either. I think we'd be well served to have a more even workload in this situation.

Cam's a .914 goalie right now, and that's not amazing, but it's better than quite a few starters and certainly good enough to justify a little more playing time for him. We talked about not knowing whether Darling can handle a starter's workload, well, maybe he can't but for once we actually have a solution to that, that we obviously didn't have when Ward was the starter.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

Unless I'm mistaken, Luke works for the N&O, not WRAL.

correct, but you're also assuming i look at the thread titles of the threads i am reading

 

[sheriff bart]

I mean, whatever, obviously he hasn't been as good as we had hoped. But as I recall, when we signed him it was with kind of a, Well, worst case we could probably make this sort of a 60/40 situation. And I think that's viable. Cam can absolutely still play a high quality game when he's not overworked, but neither is he the kind of guy who can come in cold after two weeks off and be a stud, either. I think we'd be well served to have a more even workload in this situation.

Cam's a .914 goalie right now, and that's not amazing, but it's better than quite a few starters and certainly good enough to justify a little more playing time for him. We talked about not knowing whether Darling can handle a starter's workload, well, maybe he can't but for once we actually have a solution to that, that we obviously didn't have when Ward was the starter.

This post gets the manliest thumbs up available.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Switching teams and starting a new, increased role isn't easy. While his five hole issues will likely come with the territory of being huge, I think he'll get past the glove and fluky puck handling type goals. If he does, that'll put him about where we need him to be. He was pretty solid, generally speaking, early in the year. I think at this point, the bad plays are just sticking in his head. At least it seems we can trust Cam for some games if need be to give Darling time to get his head right.

With this large number of road games coming up, we're going to need both, and we need both to perform well. I think Darling will get it together to be solid, and I hope Cam will continue to be solid now that he isn't likely to get overworked. Darling was getting a pretty big split he obviously isn't used to, so maybe dialing him back a bit won't be the worst thing in the world.

Let's also not forget as far as sample sizes that Cam was I think over 3 GAA before last night, and I think about a .907, so not that much better than Darling. With the limited number of games he's been in, his stats are still taking wild swings in either direction from good and bad games.

I think Darling will figure it out at some point.

 

[geehaad]

It's Christmas time, so here's a bit of "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were sugar and nuts" kind of post...

Take away those 3 execution errors and Darling is .909 and 2.51 GAA, in which case we have the #22 goaltender in the league (for goalies with 10+ games -- right behind Ben Bishop, incidentally). That's not quite "average NHL goaltending", but it's approaching that standard.

I admit it's not fair to simply sweep those execution errors under the rug, but at the same time you have to figure that those yips are behind him, else you're staring down a complete and utter debacle in goal that plagues the team for 2+ more years (due to salary/buyout/etc). If you can count on those once-in-a-career mistakes being truly behind him, then we are very close to getting the average NHL goaltending that we said we'd be happy with.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Let's also not forget as far as sample sizes that Cam was I think over 3 GAA before last night, and I think about a .907, so not that much better than Darling. With the limited number of games he's been in, his stats are still taking wild swings in either direction from good and bad games.

I think Darling will figure it out at some point.

I think the wild swings are something worth looking at as well. It’s crazy how both goalies appear to have no middle ground. They (basically) either win or lose the game for the team.

Darling’s SV%:
.875
.947
.914
.889
.778
.960
.857
.962
.867
.968
.958
.880
.912
.889
.846
.962
.905
.926
.852

Ward’s SV:
.949
.750
.931
.962
.815
.941
.941

 

[MinJaBen]

I think the wild swings are something worth looking at as well. It’s crazy how both goalies appear to have no middle ground. They (basically) either win or lose the game for the team.

Darling’s SV%:
.875
.947
.914
.889
.778
.960
.857
.962
.867
.968
.958
.880
.912
.889
.846
.962
.905
.926
.852

Ward’s SV:
.949
.750
.931
.962
.815
.941
.941

I think that might be a function of shot volume against. We don’t allow a bunch usually, so in a loss with low shots against, it’s going to look really bad.

 

[AD Skinner]

I think the mucky mucks wanted to send two clear messages with the starting pattern- to build darlings confidence and to make sure Ward knew his time as clearcut starter was over. I also think that if they dial back darlings workload a bit that shouldn't change the dynamic. Going platoon 1a-1b shouldn't mess with anyone's head; the writing is on the wall for the future. Here, now, this season they need to win, and if easing darling into a full time starting position a bit more gently accomplished that it's best for everyone.

 

[vorbis]

some of the things that bother me most about Darling are in the grey zone between "stylistic quirks that grate on me" and "serious concerns about technique and awareness/sharpness".

he resets very deliberately on 2nd chance opportunities, doesn't go post-to-post very well at all, and clearly (to me) he has some sort of derp-in-the-headlights approach to puck handling.

I don't know if his actual vision is poor, or he just spaces out, but it's an issue that's as consistent as any of his positive technique traits.

 

[geehaad]

he has some sort of derp-in-the-headlights approach to puck handling.

Not sure I agree with this, outside of his derp in the NYR game, of course. I won’t ask that you provide additional examples, but I can’t agree he’s played the puck badly on a consistent basis, much less being consistently derpy with it.

 

[The Stranger]

Cam's been better...even if you take away Darling's flubs. He deserves more starts and I think we'll start to see that happen starting on this road trip. Would not be surprised to see him get the lion's share of starts from here on.

I'm sure folks in the org are disappointed that Darling hasn't outperformed Ward, and this causes and issue with roster planning beyond this year....but as was said above, getting wins and a playoff birth this year is more important.

There may have been writing on the wall...but it's not in permanent ink and it's starting to fade. Darling has not provided a performance worthy of locking down the net...yet.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Cam's been better...even if you take away Darling's flubs. He deserves more starts and I think we'll start to see that happen starting on this road trip. Would not be surprised to see him get the lion's share of starts from here on.

I'm sure folks in the org are disappointed that Darling hasn't outperformed Ward, and this causes and issue with roster planning beyond this year....but as was said above, getting wins and a playoff birth this year is more important.

There may have been writing on the wall...but it's not in permanent ink and it's starting to fade. Darling has not provided a performance worthy of locking down the net...yet.

I'm not sure it's as clear as you make it out to be. As we've seen in the past, if Ward had that load, he's not immune to softies and poor play. I think they may have to give them a similar work load while Darling works through some things. It also wouldn't be surprising to see Ward get an extended run at some point, similar to what Dobby has gotten in Boston by playing well. But Ward has had a couple of rough games in his small sample size as well.

Darling has had his struggles recently, but up until mid November, he was running a 2.37 with a .910 and not looking too bad. And to say Ward has been definitively better, again, before last night and the swing of the small sample size, Ward was rocking a GAA above 3 and a barely better save percentage.

We need Ward to maintain playing better in more games than not, and Darling to get back to where he was early in the year at a minimum or we'll go nowhere.

 

[CandyCanes]

Darling has had some really strong games to go along with his not so good ones this season. His strong games give me hope that he can put it together and start stringing together some solid starts. I can imagine the mental preparedness changes drastically when you go from playing every two weeks to now 2 or 3 times a week. He was a pretty impressive backup in Chicago, put together a lot of great starts there. I'm believer that he'll start putting it together, he's shown in spurts that he can be a good goalie.

 

[Ole Gil]

I think the wild swings are something worth looking at as well. It’s crazy how both goalies appear to have no middle ground. They (basically) either win or lose the game for the team.

That's sort of the nature of save %'s. 2 goals on 25 shots is .920. 3 goals on 25 shots is .880. So if you face 25 shots, you're either going to have a sv% close to the best goalie in the league, or the worst goalie in the league.

 

[Unsustainable]

Volume of shots faced is the lowest in the league.

His SV% is going to be out of whack.

Like it’s been said, when he’s on, we are set. When he’s off, it’s going to be a long one

 

[The Faulker 27]

As geehaad said, I'm not so concerned with his SV% or GAA thus far. It's not great but it's nearing league average. What really concerns me are the blatant mistakes that lead to goals. The one in the Rangers game was a back breaker in a scenario where we scored first, and actually looked better until it happened. It happened, but it never should have and changed the course of the game. I hope these flubs are behind him, but I'm not holding my breath just yet.

 

[MinJaBen]

As geehaad said, I'm not so concerned with his SV% or GAA thus far. It's not great but it's nearing league average. What really concerns me are the blatant mistakes that lead to goals. The one in the Rangers game was a back breaker in a scenario where we scored first, and actually looked better until it happened. It happened, but it never should have and changed the course of the game. I hope these flubs are behind him, but I'm not holding my breath just yet.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't both of the really bad mistakes (center ice chip in and stick-handling gaff) against the Rangers? If so, just play Ward against the Rangers for the rest of the year....

 

[the halleJOKEL]

what is cam ward's career record vs the rangers?

 

[JCLA]

GP	W	L	T/O	GA	SA	SV	SV%	GAA	SO	PIM	TOI	EV GA	PP GA	SH GA

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

34

13

16

4

87

1056

969

.918

2.59

2

0

2016:01

59

26

2

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

for never winning in NY, he has been pretty good

 

[the halleJOKEL]

well then its a no brainer