Aaron Ward is unspeakably terrible and needs to retire
27 even strength goals against in 25 games while averaging 14:46 of ES time. That's an average of 4.02 goals against per 60 minutes at even strength.
-14 really does not do justice to Ward's horrific play on the ice. He has 13 even strength goals for, most of which he had nothing to do with. On the other hand, pretty much every goal against he is on the ice for is his fault in some way. Somebody should make a highlight reel of Aaron Ward standing in front of the net watching somebody score and put it on YouTube. There would probably need to be some clever editing, though, as it would most surely be over the ten minute time limit.
"Stable defensive partner for Pitkanen"?
Let's see: Pitkanen has a 3.09GAA at even strength when you remove the empty netters he's been on the ice for (Ward doesn't have an EN goal against this season). Pitkanen just happened to stop getting scored against multiple times a game when Ward got hurt and then subsequently demoted to the third pairing in favor of Niclas Wallin. When Niclas Wallin is better than you, that's a sign that you SUCK AT HOCKEY and NEED TO RETIRE.
Pitkanen played great last season with Seidenberg and then Babchuk. What was the need to break up that chemistry? To add "grit"? In the form of a terrible, soon-to-be 37-year old defenseman who can't skate, can't move the puck, and can't defend?
Supposedly Ward's stellar defensive play was supposed to free up Pitkanen to be more aggressive offensively. Instead Pitkanen ends up spending entire shifts in the defensive zone watching his partner endlessly chase around opposing forwards and make horrible passes. And Pitkanen is probably now terrified to pinch after watching Ward "defend" two-on-ones by taking a nap on the ice and hoping for the best.
And let's not even speak on Ward's offensive zone play. His slapshot is about 50mph and even less accurate than Corvo's. That's why he rarely takes slapshots and instead elects to fling weak wrist shots at the net that forwards block 95% of the time. It's either that or dump the puck along the boards to re-start the cycle.
Rutherford didn't realize that Norris Trophy Winner Zdeno Chara did not come along in the package with Ward. Maybe for his encore Rutherford can acquire Jonathan Cheechoo as a winger for Staal.
Last edited by Amaxing Joni Jokel: 11-29-2009 at 04:36 AM.
I decided to put together a collection of my favorite quotes related to Aaron Ward from the commenters on CanesCountry.com
"Andrew Alberts only looks bad because Aaron Ward is so bad he makes every single player on the ice look horrible when he’s there."
"Aaron ward is a worthless piece of ****."
"its like a ward forget how to play hockey when not paired with zdeno. like.. i could be a good defensive on chara’s pairing. i think we got tricked…."
"Ray Whitney wasn’t himself tonight for one. Aaron Ward was unfortunately."
"you can put that whole meltdown on Ward and Alberts
THey were our there for four of the five goals, and they happened right in front of me. Aaron Ward personally got burned on three of them.
Pitiful.
Waive Aaron Ward."
"I brought some friends who live outside of D.C. to the game tonight. Prior to the game beginning, a friend asked me to give them the rundown on what to expect. I pointed to Aaron Ward and said, “watch #4 tonight. He will be the worst defender you have ever seen in the NHL. You can count on him to cause the Hurricanes to lose at least two goals.”"
"Can someone get Scott Walker to punch Aaron Ward again?"
"Aaron Ward HURT"
"yeah!!!"
"Aaron Ward is in great pain. Anybody else hope its serious?"
"ward on ltir could be the best thing that ever happened to us"
"TERRIBLE giveaway by Rodney. He’ll fit in just fine."
"He might be learning from A Ward"
"A. Ward? You mean Chara’s Backpack?"
"Chara's athletic supporter"
"Clearly, The Aaron Ward we saw in the playoffs last year is the new, weaker, whining Ward....send him back."
"No wonder Walker punched him in the head."
"can we pay him to do it again?"
"Give it time. I would bet big money that Michael and Manny will never get a shutout as long as Aaron Ward is still here"
"A. WARD'S PENALTY
Brilliant hockey mind. Pinch in with all three forwards pounding the net; then after being beaten take a baby weak hooking penalty. That is why we have veterans, to show youngsters like Rodney — sort of, “Rodney, did you see that? never, ever, ever, do what Aaron Ward just did.”
"ALBERTS AND WARD ON THE ICE, ANYONE SURPRISED???"
"no one is surprised. no one will ever be suprised again. we expect aaron fail to be on the ice when they score"
"STRIP ROD OF THE C, FIRE MO, LEAVE WARD IN BUFFALO AND LET HIM WALK HOME!!!"
"As long as Aaron Ward lives, this team has no shot"
"WTF is WARD OUT THERE ON THE PK FOR?????"
"Or out there PERIOD!!!!!!!????"
"I guess we know how good Chara really is. he played with Ward all year last year and made him look good."
"Maybe they can start auctioning off players to the highest bidding fan."
"They would still have to keep Aaron Ward if we did that. We should call nhl on the fly and trade A Ward for Kevin Weekes and convert Weekes into a defensemen"
"I would pay $5 for Ward just to see Walker punch him once or twice a day."
"And yes Joni Pitkanen is definately missed when he’s gone. Actually anƯ defensemen that gets hurt and causes Aaron Ward to play more is greatly missed."
"Here’s an idea. Dress Aaron Ward, but don’t play him and only say you did. Literally, it can’t be worse to have double shifting on defense as opposed to having Ward give up goal after goal."
"I admit I am shocked that Aaron Ward is an awful defenseman. I had thought he would be the Aaron Ward who left the Hurricanes after the Stanley Cup; but he is worse than Frank Kaberle – a feat I thought I would never see occur in my lifetime."
Are you Babchuk's agent? If not, all of these posts are becoming increasingly uncomfortable and strange. I'm picturing a shrine and a Buffalo Bill style basement well.
This thread has nothing to do with Babchuk outside of one sentence mention Pitkanen playing with him last year.
But yes, Babchuk is God compared to Aaron Ward. All the nitpicks and criticisms about Babchuk last year apply 10x to Ward. Only difference is that Ward provides ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the team if he isn't playing good defense. I'd rather have play 4-on-5 all game with Marc-Andre Bergeron as the sole defenseman than witness Aaron Ward in a Hurricanes jersey again.
Last edited by Amaxing Joni Jokel: 11-29-2009 at 08:47 AM.
I don't see ONE negative comment in six pages. BIG thumbs ups from posters like Guerzy, StormCast, Vagrant, eerodynamic...I could go on. Everyone liked the move, because what was seen on the ice in the Bruins series was solid, veteran play (and leadership) that we all thought we were getting.
Point is, NOBODY saw this coming.
I will say that imayagainknowanton didn't really say anything.
Yep, I'll eat some crow on this one. Part of why I was excited was getting rid of Eaves after re-signing LaRose and Cole. But I still thought Wardo had one more year left in the tank. Well at least I got the "tank" part right.
Yep, I'll eat some crow on this one. Part of why I was excited was getting rid of Eaves after re-signing LaRose and Cole. But I still thought Wardo had one more year left in the tank. Well at least I got the "tank" part right.
But it's not about "eating crow", Dave. It's only about realizing that sometimes moves that made sense at the time don't work out. And it's not about poor scouting, a GM who likes to recycle players, or anything like that...it's being unable to diagnose when, exactly, a player has reached the end of his career in terms of his effectiveness. When a GM is consistently and accurately able to do it 100% of the time, please point him out to me.
PS - Corvo now ranks 3RD in TOI in the league. (Shudders)
I don't see ONE negative comment in six pages. BIG thumbs ups from posters like Guerzy, StormCast, Vagrant, eerodynamic...I could go on. Everyone liked the move, because what was seen on the ice in the Bruins series was solid, veteran play (and leadership) that we all thought we were getting.
Point is, NOBODY saw this coming.
Well stated and it's important to point out that Ward was pretty effective with the NYR and in Boston even when not paired with Chara. So far this year, he's been terrible but it happens sometimes. A good move on paper goes bad.
But there does seem to a clear undertone of extra animosity in this thread towards Ward since his re-acquisition effectively sealed Babchuk's departure. Plus I guess there is something magical about the 25 game or so mark. Babchuk had a great run over that span of games only to come totally unhinged and terrible in the playoffs but is viewed as a major loss while Ward has a brutal stretch to start the year and his retirement is sought. Pretty telling commentary and not really speculation so much as wishful thinking.
Another pining for Babchuk thread? This one gets my vote for the most creativity in slipping in the Babchuk reference knowing it would start the firestorm of Babchuk posts to follow.
Nice work here using the pure hatred of Ward to get back to your real passion, pining for Babs. Perhaps a little displaced hatred here? Agreed, this is bordering on creepy, I hope you dont know where Ward lives.
PS - Corvo now ranks 3RD in TOI in the league. (Shudders)
And count me in the "keep Rodney on the roster full time" camp at this point. Sorry Albany fans, but your defense is probably about as good as ours without Pitkanen in the lineup, you don't need Rodney as much as we do.
Oh... and finding said GM would be impossible. Even Sam Pollock made some blunders here and there somewhere along the line.
Babchuk? Actually, the anti-babchuk camp turned this thread into Babchuk thread..
What's wrong with you people? can we put that subject like completely aside? It's really annoying reading same repeating arguments about Anton from both sides again and again.
Now... Rodney... I don't really think Rodney is that good at all. Sure he can move the puck, but he isn't good defensively at all.
He is a carbon copy of Andrew Hutchitson - your #7 defenseman/PP specialist.
And A. Ward and Co - of course nobody could predict the outcome of this. Personally, I think JR used the wrong side of the roster to make this team physical and gritty. He assembled big slow defensemen alongside with slow undersized forwards and bang, the disaster happen.
We needed to grow big and physical upfront, but we couldn't really do that with all the contracts in hand.
The time is to rebuild the team. Sit tight now, until we get close to deadline and trade at that point.
We are still likely to be at the bottom of the league next year, and if JR does all the right moves from now on we'll have new window of opportunity starting in 2011-2012.
I disagree with you on Rodney. Hutchinson never had the speed that Rodney does here and that was a big reason he was a total liability out there. No positioning, no desire to be at all physical despite his frame, only his offense. Rodney at least skates well enough to get back defensively and free up some space for himself offensively from the point. He's still not very good, but he's a lot better then Hutch ever was here.
Oh yeah, trust me I'm not arguing for top 4 ice time for the guy. But sadly he IS better then Ward at this point. Rodney is at least useful as a PP specialist.
This whole team is horrible aside from a few players. Not sure why we're just harping on Ward.
It's not just him. Brind'Amour is taking a ton of heat, Yelle was earlier in the year, Alberts is getting a good bit of heat, Corvo is taking heat, Wallin ALWAYS takes heat, Harrison took heat, Cole was taking heat until the last few games and somewhat still is, LaRose is taking heat, Kostop was taking heat until he started getting more ice time (irony?).
About the only player that's been immune has been Sutter and to an extent Cam.
I sat back during last years playoff run and said to myself... I love this, but this run is going to set us back 4 years... I just KNEW JR was going to **** this up and not build this team correctly... Cole was his biggest mistake, followed closely by Mo's contract, and the acquisition of Ward... I really had no problem with LaRose's contract as long as we didn't sign Cole... But we should have made one spot open to a rookie (Boychuk or Sutter) and not signed Cole... We could have spun Cole's money into a deal for a top notch player in the $5 mil range to play with Staal...
There are a lot of inexcusable contracts on this team, that is on JRs head, but at least many of them are gone next year...
I sat back during last years playoff run and said to myself... I love this, but this run is going to set us back 4 years... I just KNEW JR was going to **** this up and not build this team correctly... Cole was his biggest mistake, followed closely by Mo's contract, and the acquisition of Ward... I really had no problem with LaRose's contract as long as we didn't sign Cole... But we should have made one spot open to a rookie (Boychuk or Sutter) and not signed Cole... We could have spun Cole's money into a deal for a top notch player in the $5 mil range to play with Staal...
There are a lot of inexcusable contracts on this team, that is on JRs head, but at least many of them are gone next year...
Agreed. The worst thing that can happen to us is fluke to our way to a good season, because then Rutherford falls in love with all the players/coaches and hands out a bunch of idiotic contracts.
The number of bad contracts he has handed out since '02 is astounding.
Of course. I mention Babchuk in combination with Seidenberg in one sentence and all of the sudden it's a Babchuk thread.
Seriously though. You mentioned Ward in almost every post in your Babchuk tribute thread, clearly tying Ward's arrival with Babchuk's departure. So to pretend a Ward bashing thread had nothing to do with Babchuk seems disingenuous, at best.
Ok so you think Babchuk didn't get a fair shake but how can you deride poor contracts and then expect the Canes to reward Babchuk for a 25-game hot streak with the 3-year deal he sought and overlook his playoff meltdown? You keep citing his 16 goals but how many D goal leaders were so bad in the playoffs they became healthy scratches? Just Anton.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caner Soze
This whole team is horrible aside from a few players. Not sure why we're just harping on Ward.
True enough and it's just one of those snowball effects. As an example, Alberts is viewed generally as providing what was expected from him while Wallin gets pistol-whipped endlessly. The fact is though that they have had very similar years overall and both are typically viewed as bottom-pair D even though Wallin recently has been playing a different role. Against ATL he was matched whenever possible against Kovalchuk but that won't get mentioned. Once branded, always branded for some players by some people.
