Back on March 3, Carolina Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters uttered perhaps the sound bite of the hockey season.
Peters was asked about the goaltending competition brewing between Cam Ward and Eddie Lack, but completely played it down and called out Lack for his terrible season, citing the fact he ranked dead-last in save percentage among 60 goaltenders who had played at least 10 games this season.
“I don’t think it’s much of a competition,” Peters said. “I think we’ve got a guy who’s well ahead of the other guy. That’s what I see and the numbers back that up. So when he gets in again he better play. He better earn some respect from your teammates. Your teammates are out there working their bag off, you better get some saves. And a timely save at the right time wouldn’t hurt.
“That’s a little bit honest, eh?”
In Lack’s last start before those comments he allowed four goals on 16 shots for a .750 save percentage in a 4-3 OT loss to Tampa Bay. At the time, Lack had a .873 save percentage on the season.
Since then, the Hurricanes have won seven of 12 games and have moved somewhat back into the playoff picture, just five points behind Boston for the second wild card spot with two games in hand. It may still be a long shot to actually get in, but the team is surging — and Lack has played a key part in that.
Since Peters said those comments, Lack has played five games and Ward seven although the backup has been the better goalie.
Ward has three wins in his seven starts and hasn’t allowed less than three goals in a game during that time, posting a .900 save percentage in the month of March.
Lack, meanwhile, has not allowed more than two goals in a game in his five starts and has raised his season save percentage to .901.
| Opponent | Result | GA | Saves | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | W | 1 | 25 | 0.962 |
| Colorado | L | 2 | 22 | 0.917 |
| Minnesota | W | 1 | 30 | 0.968 |
| Nashville | W | 2 | 27 | 0.931 |
| Montreal | W | 1 | 21 | 0.955 |
Whether or not there was a goaltending competition before, there certainly is one now. On one hand, the Hurricanes are coming on strong late and staying in the playoff hunt. If they’re going to push as hard as they can, Lack certainly is the hotter hand right now and has earned more starts than Ward.
On the other, it’s still a long shot they can leap frog the three teams in front of them and make up the five points to get into the playoffs. In that sense, each win hurts their draft lottery odds.
It also makes the crease in Carolina a point of interest in the off-season. One of Ward or Lack will be exposed to Vegas in the expansion draft. Both are signed for one more season — Lack at $2.75 million, Ward at $3.3 million — and it’s not immediately obvious which is the better to move forward with. Ward is the long-standing starter, serving in the role for 11 seasons. However he is clearly in decline at 33 years old, and not an optimal choice to start for a young team with strong possession numbers that looks a year or two away from making a charge up the standings.
Lack isn’t an optimal choice to move on with either, given his struggles with consistency. In his last year with the Canucks, Lack posted a .921 save percentage in 41 games, but hasn’t seized the job in Carolina with back-to-back seasons of save percentages hovering around the .900 mark. This season he sustained a concussion and was put on the injured reserve for a time.
And after Peters’ comments at the beginning of March, there was trade speculation around Lack.
“No. 1, he plays a style that the Hurricanes don’t really like in terms of the way they like their goalies to play,” Elliotte Friedman said on a Hockey Night in Canada Headlines segment. “No. 2, Eddie Lack is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy and Bill Peters is a very serious guy. I think that was a problem as they continued to fall out of the playoff picture.”
The obvious way forward for the Canes is to bring in a different goaltender altogether for next season and settle into a more long-term fix in the role. With even league average goaltending all season, the Hurricanes could have been a more serious playoff contender.
But, for now at least, Lack has gone from heel to hero in the month of March. At the very least he’s bought himself another chance somewhere else in the NHL — but in the meantime, he’s answered Peters’ criticism and has earned more starts than Ward down the stretch.
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