A dose of broader perspective
While there is very little positive to take specifically from Saturday’s game itself, a bit of broader perspective is probably a good starting point.
The Hurricanes finished the week at 2-1-0 which is a solid playoff pace type of mark. Even better, both wins came in front of home fans and made for fun nights at PNC Arena. So while Saturday was not good, one does not have to reach back far at all to find a slightly larger sample size and legitimate positives.
The simple, unpleasant account for Saturday’s 4-1 loss
Put simply, the Hurricanes laid an egg on Saturday. The team uncharacteristically had little for jump out of the gate. Scott Darling had nothing for answers early when the team needed time to try to play its way into the game. And the other team was just better all night.
The defense did not give up a ton of shots, but the volume of defensive break downs and coverage issues meant that too many of the chances against were grade A quality. Rate the night as a C at best defensively despite the low shot volume.
By no means can one hang this loss completely on Scott Darling on a night when the team in total played poorly. But at the same time, his performance was equally uninspiring on a night where a strong start and a couple great saves could maybe have bought time for the team to play its way into the game. Instead, the Islanders first two shots were goals, and when the Hurricanes seemed to maybe be gaining their footing, Darling let in yet another goal on a shot that hit him and leaked through a hold and into the net.
Oftentimes in the ongoing Scott Darling debate is whether Darling was bad or the defense in front of him gave up too much. On Saturday, the answer was clearly both.
Seeking positives
Andrei Svechnikov
I thought Svechnikov had a strong first period with two of his patented stop and/or sharp turns behind the net to open passing lanes to the front of the net. He hit both Wallmark and Martinook early for good chances. He also had a nifty power move to the front of the net in the third period that led to a good chance. His game continues to trend upward.
Trevor Carrick
In an era where fighting is gradually leaving the game, and fighters have been pretty much replaced by better hockey players, it is not possible to win or keep a roster spot by dropping the gloves. That said, the courage, heart and desire that Carrick showed by dropping the gloves against a heavyweight who had almost 50 pounds on him should not be overlooked.
The negatives
Lack of attention to detail by the defensemen
The play by the blue line in total was weak. The first goal which turned out to be a sign of things to come saw Filppula skate through four Hurricanes on the way to the net by himself for a goal. Hamilton and Slavin were both victimized on that goal. The second goal saw the Isles pass the puck right through Faulk and de Haan to the back door for a quick goal. And along the way, the Hurricanes yielded the occasional odd man rush, player left open in the slot and other coverage issue. As I said after the Columbus loss, I really think the team misses Brett Pesce in games like this.
Inability to adjust
Thomas Greiss and the New York Islanders have the Hurricanes number this year. They have held the Hurricanes to a single goal in three games this season on the way to a 2-0-1 mark. The formula is not incredibly complicated, but it is incredibly effective. The Islanders do a good job of clogging up the neutral zone and forcing play to the outside in their defensive. Their style of play is like kryptonite for the Hurricanes who are prone to too willingly accepting a bunch of low-quality outside shots. After seeing the Isles twice already in less than two months, I would have hoped to see some adjustment in terms of how they attacked with the puck, but Saturday’s loss was more of the same arguably the worst of the three.
Heads up Caniacs. The week in total was a decent even if imperfect one with a 2-1-0 record and marks the second consecutive week with a 2-1 record.
Next up is another road game on Tuesday night in Montreal.
Go Canes!
Thanks to work, I’m keeping up with a lot of this part of the season through recaps and media. I appreciate the perspective past the reddit post games and other more game to game editorializing sites.
Watching the extended recap I saw a lot more good NYI chances than goals tonight. A couple where Darling made up for substantial defensive lapses. Aside from Svech getting a little creative nothing else looked as threatening on Greiss as Darling’s softer goals. Neither of which were catastrophic failures.
It’s totally possible I missed context, but Darling got more screen time making saves than the rest of the team did forcing Greiss to make them.
Darling definitely wasn’t good, but he looked better than the team in front of him. He also did that coming off sporadic starts after an injury.
All this is to say I worry that at a point in the season where we should have our identity in place it seems that the team isn’t showing up at the times for the goalies who might play their way into the 1 slot and now folks are looking at Cam 2.0 to save us.
Essentially the goalie debate becomes moot until the same team keeps showing up in front of them.
Matt. There are two things in the games where the Canes look bad: defensive breakdowns and lack of scoring. As you correctly stated, “the team misses Brett Pesce in games like this.” While his recent history with injury is concerning, he should remain part of the core.
As someone who much prefers museums to pubs, I think I would like Dougie Hamilton. But as a Canes fan I think he is the player who should be traded for Nylander or a similar offensive catalyst. He and Slavin have been good when the team has been good, but too often they are on the ice for the first goal or the deflating goal in games where the Canes “lay an egg.” To be honest, even during the two winning streaks this season Slavin/Hamilton have not been “one of the top three first pairings in the league” that many expected. Hamilton, due to his offensive potential, almost surely has more trade value than Pesce (though Pesce’s contract might make it close).
I will be the first to admit that 22 game is not enough to make a full assessment of a player or pairing. Hamilton could be the team’s best player by March. But with any trade there is risk. Looking at the situation today, the Canes need another scoring forward and the organization has a surplus of RHD. If I was GM, I take the best offer for Hamilton.
I’m fully with andintheopenair above. A sorry performance by all. It is especially disheartening to see the team fail to step up and play well in front of Darling knowing he had been inactive for an extended period of time.
The Canes can’t get anything but perimeter shots vs the Islanders. You don’t win squat like that. It made sense for Brind’Amour to shake up the lines and try to get Foegele going and make the Aho line less perimeter, but it didn’t work. Foegele just isn’t the same player he was during his audition last season, the preseason, or October of this season. It’s a concern. He looks more and more like Nordstrom. The Canes need the confident Warren Foegele back.
Scott Darling…sigh…this just isn’t going to work. No, the Canes weren’t good in front of him. At some point that’s just because they don’t believe in him. Darling’s demeanor gives him away. His reaction after goals just screams “no confidence.” It’s getting close to time to cut bait and eat that contract.
I don’t understand defending Darling’s play. Yes, the team played bad in front of him last night. But it’s also true that he still gave up goals that he shouldn’t. I’ve never hear the phrase “leaky goal” more than when Darling is in net. HE STILL HASN’T WON TWO GAMES IN A ROW. McElhinney did that twice in last week.
The Scott Darling experiment has failed spectacularly. Last season he was statistically the worst goalie in the NHL and those stats matched up with watching him play. This season, he’s had periods where he looked good. Yet in almost every start, he’s also given up very soft goals. This shows up in with his over 3 goals against average, the worst of the team’s 3 goalies.
The team isn’t playing well in front of him because they have no faith in him. It’s human nature. Subconsciously, the players expect a loss.
It’s time to understand that Darling’s play is exactly what we’re going to continue to get with him in net. He can’t play if this team is serious about making the playoffs this year.
Adam Gold is calling for sending Darling down to the minors:
https://www.wralsportsfan.com/time-s-up-on-the-darling-era/18018864/
He points to interesting stats, e.g. that Darling has never strung together consecutive wins in a Hurricanes uniform.
True, the team in front of him did not show up yesterday, I hope the Canes don’t have many more Saturday night games, but he’s got a point I suppose.
It’s been a good week but it does not justify the lack of effort yesterday. Apart from the Svech line it was a sorry sight.
I laid out the case for trading Hamilton yesterday and the game did not change that opinion. We can package him with Aho and get a 5th round pick and a bag of chips.
In retrospect the Flames deal should’ve been Hannifin for Ferland, but that is just hindsight evaluation, not something obvious at the time.
I don’t disagree with Gold’s characterization of Darling, but sending him to the minors is a bad idea. He can only get in the way of a young goalie trying to develop. If you make this decision you are done with Darling. It’s best to buy him out and allow him to try to rebuild his career with another franchise.
But if you don’t play him and you don’t send him down to the minors what do you do with him for the rest of this season? If he sits in the press box he still occupies one of the 23 NHL roster spots.
Please read the last sentence of my previous post.
The buyout period is not until the end of the season, after the playoffs.
Welp…goes to show you what I know about waiver procedures. I don’t think Darling deserves to be sent down. He may not be good, but he isn’t out of shape and not giving his best effort like last season. With Charlotte being just down the road the Canes should be able to handle juggling players. At the end of the season they can deal with Darling.
The canes could trade darling to a team with an equally expensive contract of an under performing veteran (Lucic or similar).
I haven’t done checks but there may be a few teams with albatross contracts that might trade that contract and a pick to the Canes in return for the remainder of Darling’s contract.
I think the Canes have to make a decision very soon whether to shoot for the playoffs this year (and make some moves to go all in, like getting rid of Darling’s contract and upgrading offense for defense) or full rebuild mode, in which case darling is given a bunch of starts to play himself out of the funk (we know he is capable of more) and kids are given more ice time in Raleigh.
I’m personally tired of the “there will be pudding tomorrow” approach. If players always believe that this season is not that important they start playing like games don’t matter and never reach their potential. I think part of the supposed attitude problem last year had a lot to do with the lack of expectations from the fans, the media and their own management.
The fans are already impatient, another season of rebuild is not going to up the P&C arena attendance.
but the worse case scenario is the one most likely at the moment, that the canes play themselves into the 10th or 11th spot in the east and end up with nothing but a #12 or 13 pick, again.
Depending on when Mrazek returns, Darling may well have played his last game as a Cane but we have the back-to-back this week with cross-country travel. Will Mrazek be ready? I don’t see an incentive for a team to take on Darling’s contract and underperformance even if they have their own bad contract. Take your example of EDM and Lucic. Although grossly overpaid for it, Hitchcock has given him a new role and moved him to a disruption line comprised of man-mountains. Hitch is saying he still has value as a player and can be very good in certain roles. You have to find a contract and a player that are so bad…that it probably doesn’t make sense for us. At the end of the season we can buy Darling out for $1.4M for 4 years. Would you really take Lucic’s $6M for 4 more years?? I get what you are saying – you probably picked a bad example. But if we can buy him out relatively cheaply, maybe it’s best to carry him?? It’s going to take a lot of incentive for someone to take him in any deal.
Four years at $1.4M…not so bad. At least they still aren’t paying Semin…whoops!!!
The other thing about a guy like Lucic is he isn’t just bad on the ice. His reputation off the ice isn’t stellar. One of the things that has been said is the Canes are trying to build with good people. Darling may not be a good goalie, but he seems to be good people. Pass on Lucic.
There are 2 problems with Lucic. His contract is long term and toxic, loaded w/ bonuses and a NMC to boot. As important, our rebuild has us in a spot where we NEED four or five slots for rookies to play in the NHL. Lucic taking a slot for 5 years would hamstring that need. Nonetheless, I like the way you are thinking. Darling would have great value to a team wanting to get in on the Jack Hughes sweepstakes. Even a 7th round pick in the 2020 draft would improve the team.
Yeah, it was a bad example, and I have not located a better match.
It looks like the Canes will just have to forge on and hope that Darling can somehow figure it out or buy him out next summer.
He played well in Chicago, he is capable of a higher gear, and the management is just stuck with a bad decision not to do more to upgrade the goalie position, somewhat offset by the good fortune of big Mac becoming available.
If Mrazek isn’t ready, I expect we will see Darling on Saturday in LA.
No game Saturday. Sunday.
When the camera showed Mrazek in uniform behind the goal late in the 2nd period did anyone else want to him to come into the game for the third period? RBA missed a great opportunity to give him some “rehab” time before his next real start.
I also don’t understand the psychology of putting McELhinney in the press box after his streak of good starts, especially when Darling was going to play the whole game without regard to his results. In summary, our best goal tender was banished to the press box, our worst goal tender gets a full game to prove he is our worst and our next great hope Mrazek gets a great view of the Honda, also in the front row behind the goal line, for 60 minutes. Maybe the Canes just don’t deserve good goal tending.
The psychology may have been for Brind’Amour’s psychology. He didn’t want to play McElhinney and didn’t want to be tempted to use him if Darling stunk. Honestly, not a bad thought. The way the Canes played Martin Brodeur wouldn’t have helped, so there is that.
Were Mrazek not fully able to play, suiting him up to back up Darling could have been disaster were Darling injured in the game and Mrazek HAD to play. For my money Darling gets treated with kid gloves by management. He should be the one in the press box or the unused back up. Whatever his issue, the team has handled him gently through those issues, often at the expense of the morale of the other goal tenders and team morale.
As to even “…Brodeur wouldn’t have helped.” I disagree. Brodeur would have screamed holy hell at the team at the first breakdown, orchestrated better positioning for the players in front of him, slashed every opponent who dared try to screen him and led the team out the funk by example. Chicken or egg? Darling giving up softies or team effort becoming lackadaisical.