Can't copy title, but it's hockey metoo movement
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A week that featured charges, revelations, investigations and a fair amount of soul-searching ended the way most figured it would Friday – with the Calgary Flames dismissing coach Bill Peters.
Geoff Ward, who stepped in and replaced Peters behind the bench in Wednesday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, will continue coaching the team going forward.
The Flames have scheduled a press conference for 10:30 local time to discuss the details of their decision.
Peters came under fire Monday evening, when Akim Aliu, a former player on the American Hockey League’s Rockford IceHogs, charged on Twitter that Peters had made racially charged comments about Aliu’s choice of dressing-room music a decade ago, when they were together in the minors. Rockford is the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks; Peters was the head coach at the time and Aliu a rookie player in the organization.
According to Aliu’s tweets, Peters “dropped the N bomb several times towards me in the dressing room in my rookie year because he didn’t like my choice of music.” Peters later confirmed in a letter of apology to Flames general manager Brad Treliving that he’d used “offensive language … in a professional setting a decade ago” and acknowledged that there was “no excuse for language that is offensive.” Peters also said he was “rightfully” challenged by his use of language that day, presumably by the Rockford players, and that he immediately returned to the dressing room to issue an apology.
A day later, Aliu responded with a letter of his own, saying he’d found Peters’ statement to be misleading, insincere and concerning and that he would refrain from further comment until he’d spoken directly to the NHL about his own version of the events that had unfolded.
Treliving has been the point man for the Flames’ investigation of the matter, but most of his statements up to this point focused on the need for due process and a thorough investigation into the charges. The suspicion all along was that the Flames needed to get their legal ducks in order before dismissing Peters in case the matter ends up in court.
Ward has been in charge of the team ever since, and has been temporarily assisted on the ice and on the bench by assistant general manager Craig Conroy.
Soon after Aliu tweeted his comments, two other players who’ve previously crossed paths with Peters also took their former coach to task for the way in which he treated his players, adding their voices to a growing chorus of complaints.
Sean McMorrow, who is currently playing for the Jonquière Marquis of Quebec’s League Nord-Americaine de Hockey, called Peters “the worst human being to ever coach me … treated me terrible on an NHL team (IceHogs) where I won a league award for community service.”
Former Hurricanes defenceman Michal Jordan, now playing for Khabarovsk Amur in Russia’s KHL, said of his time playing for Peters in Carolina: “Never wish anything bad to the person but you get what you deserve Bill. After years making it to the NHL had experience with the worst coach ever by far. Kicking me and punching other player to the head during the game … then pretending like nothing happened…”
Jordan went to say he “couldn’t believe my eyes what can happen in the best league” and that he was “happy that i don’t have to go thru that stuff on daily basis anymore.”
The Hurricanes, via current coach Rod Brind’Amour, then an assistant to Peters, confirmed that the incident cited by Jordan “for sure happened.”
Peters was in his second season as Flames’ head coach, after replacing Glen Gulutzan in the summer of 2018.
Prior to that, he’d been head coach of the Hurricanes for four years, joining the organization after a three-year turn as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings under Mike Babcock.
Recent allegations over the way Babcock treated his players at different times in his coaching life were what prompted Aliu to send out his Twitter message about Peters in the first place.
“Not very surprising the things we’re hearing about Babcock,” tweeted Aliu. “Apple doesn’t fall far from the Tree, same sort of deal with his protege (Peters) in YYC.”
It may well be that the Aliu revelations contribute to a catharsis for the sport of hockey, and not just at the NHL level. All coaching relationships at all levels involve a level of power and a layer of trust. The fact that those two qualities are abused on some level every day is unlikely a major revelation. Social media has created a public platform for people to speak up about transgressions that have occurred against them. Depending upon what happens going forward, this may well be hockey’s #MeToo moment.
Under Peters last season, the Flames earned 107 points and became the NHL’s Western Conference overall champions, completing their single most successful regular season since winning the Stanley Cup in 1989. However, they then lost to the eighth-seeded Colorado Avalanche in the opening playoff round and were off to a poor start in the 2019-20 season, with an 11-12-4 record after 27 games. If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Flames would not qualify.
Ward is a long-time NHL assistant coach, who spent seven years in Boston, and helped the Bruins win the 2011 Stanley Cup. After coaching Mannheim to a DEL title in 2014, he returned to North America and worked three years an assistant on John Hynes’ staff with the New Jersey Devils. Ward moved to Calgary, with the title associate coach when Peters was originally hired. Apart from his time in Mannheim, Ward has also been a head coach at the junior and minor-pro level. He won the AHL coach of the year award in 2003.