Cam Ward has played well enough where he should have been in the playoffs every season but 09-10.
I don't agree with that. His first two years as a starter, he wasn't nearly good enough. Then he had a 3-4 year stretch where he was good enough (09-10 he missed a lot of time due to the skate cut injury..and by the time he returned, the Canes chances were done). In that stretch of 3 seasons, they made the playoffs once and just missed on the last game of the season once, and were a disaster the other.
Last year and this year, he has not been good enough (injuries not withstanding).
I'm not in the bash Cam camp and honestly think that for this year, they can't keep relying on Peters, but right now, Cam does not look good. He doesn't look confident, his positioning (which to me used to be a strong point of his) is suspect, and his lateral movement isn't there. He's always struggled with glove side high and giving up a softy now and then, but the rest of his game was solid enough to overcome that.
We keep hearing the same excuses. "He was screened. It was a tip. The shot was from a prime scoring area. etc..."
If we have to have a goalie that can only stop the unscreened, untipped, shots from bad scoring spots, then we don't need one that costs almost $7M. Cam needs to come around, and come around quickly as I don't trust that Peters (and the team) can keep this up.