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Current State of the Canes ... encouraged?

Darling's last season in Chicago his save percent was .924 as a backup. before that he was .915 and .936 in the previous 2 years also as backup. I believe a lot of teams were willing to sign him last summer , it was not just the Canes rating him highly .
 
Boardwork said:
I don't want to defend Darling as I have no idea if he can get better--but has anyone watched tapes or remember games he played in Chicago? Did he have the gaping 5 hole there? and constantly out of position.

He was so bad at fundamentals last year its hard to believe being in better shape is the answer. (or even confidence).

If he used to be fundamentally sound, maybe he can get back there....
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I think a lot of the problem Darling encountered here was a fundamentally different approach to what was going on in front of him than he had experienced in Chicago.

From what I have read, Chicago asks their goalies to stop the initial shot (and yes there were some problems with that) but then has the D-men cleaning up the crease and/or preventing rebound chances. Goalie is not really responsible for those.

Well, as we know, we didn't really do that under Peters' system. Instead, the D-men were just as likely to be in the corners or along the wall looking for a break-out pass from the goalie acting more like a third D-man (as Cam was want to do). And Darling was not so good with that puck-handling and/or stopping rebound chances.

Plus some of those initial shots were odd-man breakaways due to the tight-gap near-perfection defensive system being employed that once the opposing offensive player was lost was all on the goalie to stop.

Maybe we don't do so much of that going forward. We'll see.

We certainly have two different style goalies now. Mrazek aggressively challenges shooters, leaving him more than a bit exposed if he misses, whereas Darling tends to retreat back into the crease when attacked.

Going to be interesting to see how goalie coach Mike Bales deals with the two of them.

Heard someone on NHL Radio crediting Bales with reviving Fleury's game by teaching finding the post and working outward from that. Could be a good technique for both goalies to resurrect their past season's woes.
 
Imho peters leaving is the best thing and the best hope for success.
Again, imho peters screwed up darling, Faulk, Skinner, and Rask.
I hope to see them playing up to their capabilities this year, a.thiugh Skinner and Faulk maybe with other teams.
 
Peters screwed up the goalie situation, period... calling out Lack the way he did in '17, and refusing to give Alt, Neds, or Helvig a shot as the #3 when Cam was overused and Darling obviously wasn't cutting it. That six game winless skid in February was brutal, and... wait, February in general was brutal, even the four wins. Cam was still looking halfway decent at that point and could (should?) have been parlayed into a decent draft pick (and likely a shot to be the backup on a playoff-bound team) instead of losing him for nothing... but that part's on Francis, actually.

The articles are saying that the Canes have the best defensive corps in the league right now. If they can play like it, I have some optimism that it could make Darling and Mrazek more comfortable doing what they do. Plus defense wins championships, right?
 
Getting Ferland and Martinook is what I like about this summer so far. We have to get tougher to play against, and not be so passive after the whistles. This for me was the overriding problem.
 
brassbonanza said:
Getting Ferland and Martinook is what I like about this summer so far. We have to get tougher to play against, and not be so passive after the whistles. This for me was the overriding problem.
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Who is the last guy we had with Ferland’s skill set? Gary Roberts? That said, he only had 24 PIM last year and 50 the year before. Martinook only had 45 PIM. But both are tough to play against.
 
Teams are going to try and take liberties on Necas and Svetch. We gotta send the message that s**t wont fly anymore. That would be a huge cultural shift and that's what im hoping for.
 
brassbonanza said:
Teams are going to try and take liberties on Necas and Svetch. We gotta send the message that s**t wont fly anymore. That would be a huge cultural shift and that's what im hoping for.
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That cultural shift has to happen and the overall problem the past few years has also been that this team has no real identity. I think Brindy’s first huge task will be to drill it into their heads that they simply have to be a team that is tough to play against, even if that is as simple as being known as a club that works their asses off nightly and creates an identity with their work ethic and style of play.
 
andyt said:
Who is the last guy we had with Ferland’s skill set? Gary Roberts? That said, he only had 24 PIM last year and 50 the year before. Martinook only had 45 PIM. But both are tough to play against.
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Ruutu called and he's a little peeved with you.
 
Boardwork said:
I don't want to defend Darling as I have no idea if he can get better--but has anyone watched tapes or remember games he played in Chicago? Did he have the gaping 5 hole there? and constantly out of position.

He was so bad at fundamentals last year its hard to believe being in better shape is the answer. (or even confidence).

If he used to be fundamentally sound, maybe he can get back there....
Click to expand...

I'll admit to not watching the Hawks all that much during that stretch, but I clearly recall the couple of games Darling played against the Canes and he was very impressive. I'm no goalie nerd, as I tend to focus on the defensemen, but I don't remember there being huge technical issues with his game. He's a big guy though, and little breakdowns are magnified when you've got a long, lanky frame.

My general take on Darling's season last year is summed up like this ... mental meltdown leading to technique meltdown. Fix the first and the second is WAY less of an issue I think. Of course, rebuilding confidence and fortitude is going to take time, which is why I'm so skeptical of Darling starting the year in Raleigh. But hey ... options are clearly limited.
 
Punzil said:
The articles are saying that the Canes have the best defensive corps in the league right now.
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Yeah ... that's definitely a hot take, because it's just not true but close enough to be controversial. St Louis, Nashville, Tampa ... that's three easy ones off the top of my head.
 
jeffbear said:
Yeah ... that's definitely a hot take, because it's just not true but close enough to be controversial. St Louis, Nashville, Tampa ... that's three easy ones off the top of my head.
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Yeah - so probably not true, but to be in the same conversation with those teams is still nice. Plus we have room to grow and develop with our existing talent.
 
I have to periodically remind myself this is not the Hurricanes of the past 20 years. I catch myself with the old mindset: no drafting Russians; trades, when made, are for tweaks and not overhauls, and; loyalty and old boys club before business, etc. So, when Cam Ward is no longer a Hurricane, there is an overhaul on defense with the scooping up of deHaan, Dougie Hamilton is brought in to make us better NOW, the promise of size and grit are delivered, no longer being "safe and slow," and a GM is not going to be forced into a potentially bad contract or two, then I can say I am encouraged. I will even accept the risk of a Mrazek and Darling (I think Darling is a fighter and will get into form) because of the defense in front of them. I hope we can solve the center position, but all in all, we are moving in the right direction.
 
It really sucks that Victor Rask did a complete 180 on us after signing that big contract. He was never going to be a #1 center, but at least he was a presence in the lineup most of the time. If Rask is still around when training cap and the season start, he is going to need to substantially improve his 'give a crap' level if Brindy really follows through with taking action on soft, careless, minimal effort play. We would be much better off at center if the Victor rask from his first 2 NHL seasons was still around.
 
cmaleski2 said:
It really sucks that Victor Rask did a complete 180 on us after signing that big contract. He was never going to be a #1 center, but at least he was a presence in the lineup most of the time. If Rask is still around when training cap and the season start, he is going to need to substantially improve his 'give a crap' level if Brindy really follows through with taking action on soft, careless, minimal effort play. We would be much better off at center if the Victor rask from his first 2 NHL seasons was still around.
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One freaking game in the press box is all Peters did with Rask last year during his dreadful money grab of a lost season. Ever since Rask had that shoulder surgery he is as soft as Charmin. He is barely treading water as a third or fourth line center and the Canes can not afford him to fiddle about like last year, hopefully Brindy can get him going.
 
Yeah ... Rask. Look, I understand getting into an offensive slump, which clearly happened with Rask early last season. But when you can't take two shifts without losing your check and getting horrifically out of position in the defensive zone, that just means you're either not trying or you're trying to do multiple things at the same time. If ever a guy needed to be parked until he got his head together it was Rask last season ... and as noted, he got one game in the press box and then went straight back to making the same mistakes he had been making before.

Some of that is on Peters' typical man manglement, but Victor was not some child going into last season. He had 242 NHL games under his belt by then and should have been able to get his own self out of that hole. Instead he kept digging and then just quit trying. I haven't been that disappointed in player in a long, long time.
 
Yeah, I wondered if I've been too hard on Rask. I get slumps, but I felt like he was just coasting. I chalked it up to playing injured, but I don't really know what he was going through and it would be easy to assume he had checked out.

He has talent, so one could always hope for a rebound. I also like to think he would want to make up for last season. I sure hope so. No one is going to want him and his $4 million price tag. I honestly don't know where to put him. He's not a first line center, he's not Staal, he's not Necas and I'd rather have a sandpaper-like four line centre.

It would be prudent to see if he returns to form, but I wouldn't mind trading him for whatever picks we could get just to get him out of here.
 
Rask disappearing is not unusual. It is why he fell to the second round his draft year. In Charlotte, Daniels demoted him to the 4th line when he stopped producing (and people balked said it was bad for his development--but he played his way back to the top 6).

The guy needs regular pushing....
 
I think you start him out on the fourth line and ask him to just mind his defensive assignment. If he starts to show he can handle that, then you think about giving him more to do. Let him rebuild from the ground up.
 
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