Pre-Game Talk: Pens
- Thread starter Unsustainable
- Start date
CandyCanes
Caniac turned Jerkiac
- Jan 8, 2015
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Throw Darling to the wolves against the Pens as it's an automatic loss usually with Ward or Darling. Wings game is winnable so having a goalie not give up 4+ goals will actually matter.
Joe McGrath
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2009
- 18,126
- 38,099
It’s a real tough situation. Do you hold Cam off to play him vs Detroit on the road, or do you roll the dice on trying to get two wins? Being out of a playoff spot would lead me to at least try to win both games and start Cam vs Pittsburgh. And hey, if they lose both, we know they’re done.
JCLA
Registered User
- Feb 23, 2017
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I think you have to roll the dice on getting two wins
TheBigKahuna
Registered User
Cam starts both games. I don't see Darling playing again.
Whatever we do with the goaltending will be wrong, because everything we do with the goaltending is always wrong.
Joe McGrath
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2009
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I’m actually at the point where I would have brought up Ned for one of these games. Maybe even the Pens game. He’s been absolute lights out in Charlotte for a good 3 weeks playing the same system the Canes do. His #s aren’t anything special, but neither are Cam’s. Their style is similar and he handles the puck well. Maybe he fits. And he can’t be any worse than Darling, and if he is, well what’s the difference if you lose 6-2 instead of 4-2?
AD Skinner
Registered User
Play Ward both games. He's had a week of rest and they can play Darling in Boston next week since they'll be getting stomped anyway
The Faulker 27
Registered User
Play Ward in both. It's an automatic loss with Darling anyway, it can't be any worse.
Breakdowns
Meh
Ward and Ward or Ned and Ward or Ward and Ned
Just no Darling
Just no Darling
I vote Darling and Darling. Either he finds a way and we can then maybe trick someone to take him at the deadline, or he ends the charade and I can spend my time looking at draft prospects.
Breakdowns
Meh
I don't think this a charade, he had many chances to end it already. Backup for life.
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Boom Boom Apathy
I am the Professor. Deal with it!
- Sep 6, 2006
- 48,351
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I was half joking in the other thread about starting Darling against the Pens as it's an auto-loss either way, but I'd start Ward against the Pens for a couple reasons. 1st, in the "off" chance that Ward doesn't get much work, you can play him back to back. Secondly, as others had said, you need to really go for 2 wins here.
JCLA
Registered User
- Feb 23, 2017
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Yeah darlings chance to work his way out of this slump this year is over. He's gonna have to do that with backup duty if he's going to be ont he roster and I don't know if he can in backup duty.
- Dec 6, 2011
- 12,348
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Darling may be God awful, but he's got more wins in his last two starts that Ward does in his last two. Maeks you think.....but not really.
RodTheBawd
Registered User
- Oct 16, 2013
- 5,529
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Buahahaha... you think we'll score 2 goals in a loss? Classic.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
I'd absolutely start Darling against the Pens. There's no pressure on him to win a game like that, but plenty of media upside for bringing his A game. And from the Pens perspective maybe it gets in their heads a bit if he has a strong start. We all hate nights like that (see: Canes last 2 games).
I see nothing but downside to having Ward play back-to-back, with the strong possibility that he gets torched by a good team going into a game against a bad team.
Boom Boom Apathy
I am the Professor. Deal with it!
- Sep 6, 2006
- 48,351
- 97,866
We can what-if our way into any answer. @tarheelhockey
Your what-if is that Darling somehow brings his A-Game (that I'm not sure he has right now), plays well and gets in the Pens heads (which seems very unlikely to me). Your other scenario is that Cam gets torched by the same team that Darling might play well against. I could just as easily say: "What if Ward gives the Canes a lift and they beat the Pens, the Darling has less pressure on the road and a better chances against a weaker team in Detroit".
Although we won't know until it happens, all data points to Darling getting lit up and the Canes getting clobbered by the Pens if Darling starts against them. It's possible that the opposite occurs, but that seems optimistic to me based on past performance. While anything can happen, I see it like this:
Scenario 1
PENS-Darling: Highly Likely a Loss
Wings - Ward: Good chance at a win
Scenario 2
Pens-Ward: Better chance at a win, but odds still against.
Wings-Ward B2B: Chance at a win.
Darling-Wings: Probably loss.
So if the Canes want to play it safe and get have their best chance at getting 2 points at least, they put Darling against the Pens. Maybe the get lucky and get 3 or 4 out of that approach, but if they want to try and get 3-4 points, they go with scenario 2, even if it may backfire. Again, anything is possible so it may not play out that way in the end and I won't argue with either approach.
Your what-if is that Darling somehow brings his A-Game (that I'm not sure he has right now), plays well and gets in the Pens heads (which seems very unlikely to me). Your other scenario is that Cam gets torched by the same team that Darling might play well against. I could just as easily say: "What if Ward gives the Canes a lift and they beat the Pens, the Darling has less pressure on the road and a better chances against a weaker team in Detroit".
Although we won't know until it happens, all data points to Darling getting lit up and the Canes getting clobbered by the Pens if Darling starts against them. It's possible that the opposite occurs, but that seems optimistic to me based on past performance. While anything can happen, I see it like this:
Scenario 1
PENS-Darling: Highly Likely a Loss
Wings - Ward: Good chance at a win
Scenario 2
Pens-Ward: Better chance at a win, but odds still against.
Wings-Ward B2B: Chance at a win.
Darling-Wings: Probably loss.
So if the Canes want to play it safe and get have their best chance at getting 2 points at least, they put Darling against the Pens. Maybe the get lucky and get 3 or 4 out of that approach, but if they want to try and get 3-4 points, they go with scenario 2, even if it may backfire. Again, anything is possible so it may not play out that way in the end and I won't argue with either approach.
The Faulker 27
Registered User
If Darling starts vs the Pens the game will be over in the first period, and we all know it.
RodTheBawd
Registered User
- Oct 16, 2013
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I don't think THH is suggesting Darling will bring his A-game, I think he's saying there is virtually no downside in starting him. The upside is what he laid out. Pretty sure pretty much everyone would agree with your Scenario 1 and Scenario 2.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
I'm not assuming Darling brings his A-game... I'm saying there's no pressure on him to bring his A-game.
The Pens have averaged over 4.5 goals per game over their past 11 games. If they score 5 on Darling, nobody blinks.
So what's the harm in putting Darling out there with a "hey, just go out there and hold the fort against these guys, don't worry about the score" type attitude? Take the pressure off the guy to be THE GUY for a night, just let him play hockey. Even if he lets in 4, 5, 6 goals it might actually do him some good to relax and get some saves without feeling like he's letting everyone down. And if he somehow shows up big and keeps it close, hell, that's probably his biggest accomplishment of the whole season.
On the other hand, you put Ward in there and you're making a statement that we NEED these points and he NEEDS to be the guy. That's just how it is, you're putting your #1 on the firing line against an offensive juggernaut in a must win game, knowing he's probably only going to get 2 or 3 goals of support. So he gets lit up, then what? He keeps it close but loses, then what? There's no way to make that a low-pressure game for him.
So then you turn around and have a game in Detroit.
- If it's Ward coming off a miracle win, you've got a guy playing back to back. If it's Ward coming off any kind of loss, you've got him playing back-to-back and feeling like crap. If it's Ward coming off a night's rest, you've got a rested #1 against a bad team.
- If you start Darling back to back, that's just dumb. So I assume you're starting a rested Darling, in which case you just gave him another high-pressure game. And we can see that he's crumbling under that sort of pressure, so you're probably going to hate the results. Which pushes Darling even further into the gutter.
As you can probably tell, I'm not thinking about the odds of 2-3-4 points, I'm thinking about it from the standpoint of getting the most out of your goalies both during and after these two games.
Navin R Slavin
Fifth line center
A dialogue from two minutes ago:
Mrs. Hank: "HEY GUESS WHAT?"
Hank: "What?"
Mrs. Hank: "The Canes actually called someone up from Charlotte!"
Hank: "THEY DID OMG REALLY WHO????"
Mrs. Hank: ...dramatic pause... "Josh Jooris!"
Hank: "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *sob*"
f*** my life.
Mrs. Hank: "HEY GUESS WHAT?"
Hank: "What?"
Mrs. Hank: "The Canes actually called someone up from Charlotte!"
Hank: "THEY DID OMG REALLY WHO????"
Mrs. Hank: ...dramatic pause... "Josh Jooris!"
Hank: "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *sob*"
f*** my life.
The Faulker 27
Registered User
At least your wife still talks about the Hurricanes. It's practically taboo in mine. My wife was over their BS years ago.
Jerkob Slavin
Likable Jerk
For the rest of the season, I’d consider playing Darling as a last resort only. Cam gives up 2-3 softies... in goes Scott.
