Notes from the Bill Peters introductory press conference
By Ryan Pike
6 years agoThis morning at the Saddledome, the Calgary Flames introduced former Carolina Hurricanes bench boss Bill Peters as their new coach. Peters and general manager Brad Treliving held court with local media and chatted a bit about the hiring, the fit, and where things go from here.
Arguably the biggest news item of the press conference came out very early: Treliving admitted that he didn’t speak to anybody else for the job. It was very evident that the ousting of Glen Gulutzan last Tuesday was very much about a specific type of upgrade behind the bench. Treliving and Peters both mentioned that the team will play a similar style from a year ago. Peters described the style as: “We wanna play quick, we wanna have the puck, and we wanna attack.”
Peters and Treliving are headed right to work on hiring two assistants: Peters’ preference is to hire “teachers,” with one coach running forwards and the power play and the other coach running the defense and penalty kill. Considering that Peters is headed to Europe for the World Championship on Wednesday, we probably won’t get much news on that until closer to June.
What was really emphasized was the importance of (a) special teams and (b) a good camp and a good start. On special teams, Peters wants to be top 10 “in all those primary categories,” because being in the top half of the league means you’re on the bubble. He doesn’t want them to be a bubble team: he wants a good start and for them to be worrying about home ice down the stretch, not eking in.
He admitted that burying Eddie Lack when he was in Carolina “wasn’t a proud moment as a coach.”
The most impressive thing about Peters may be his knowledge of the Flames roster. He apologized if he forgot anybody in advance, then ran through several pieces of the team.
- He thinks he’ll leave Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan together, noting he’s more of a “pairs guy than a lines guy.”
- On Matthew Tkachuk: “There’s not five guys in the league like that.”
- Mark Giordano and Dougie Hamilton: “Elite in many different areas.”
- He really knew the blueline group, rattling off specific points about Travis Hamonic, TJ Brodie, Brett Kulak and Rasmus Andersson that he liked.
- He had a lot of praise for Mike Smith and David Rittich, though noted that Rittich will likely be pushed in camp.
Treliving emphasized building relationships with players as important for the coaching staff, rather than staying in the coaches’ room.
All told, there weren’t any groundbreaking comments from either the general manager or his new coach, but both men said what you would expect them to say. But Peters came across as passionate and knowledgeable about the team he’s inheriting.
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