This is not the first time fate and opportunity have collided for Scott Darling. He has made – remade – a career of identifying the moments when possibilities emerge.
From the outside, the chance to be the Carolina Hurricanes’ No. 1 goalie looks like it may be the most important of any of them, the long-awaited chance to establish himself as a legitimate NHL starter. For Darling, it’s merely the latest in a long chain of opportunities, each of which was necessary to lead to the next, with no margin for error at any point.
No one opportunity was more important than the next, because there’s no other way to get from the lowest rung of the hockey ladder to the top as Darling has.