Maybe Darling was subject to Bill Peters being terrible for goalies and we’ll see him get better under a new coach and system.
He was legitimately horrific last year. I went back and watched every goal he allowed last year, just because people were blaming Peters system and what I found was that somewhere between 59%-60% of the goals he allowed were stoppable and failed the eye test. Just in our game against him in February. He allowed 5 goals and literally 4 of them ranged from stoppable to absolutely hideous. Some of the worst goals I saw last year were allowed by him. Including that shot lobbed from center ice from a Ranger, that wound up going in. That was the cleanest center ice goal you’ll ever see, as they usually need to hit either a player or a patch in the ice to go in from there.
Peters system was the last reason for his pathetic season last year. If anything, it could have been that it became mental and his confidence was shot after starting the season poorly and he never recovered.
I think he’ll be better this year, as you have to try harder to be as bad as he was last year than to just be bad. He was far beyond bad.
