Calgary Flames: Bill Peters should be on the hot seat

The Calgary Flames have been a very disappointing team this season. There’s a lot of blame to be passed around, but most of it ought to be directed at head coach Bill Peters.

The Calgary Flames came into this season with very high hopes. Even after losing in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to the Colorado Avalanche, they were coming off one of the most successful regular seasons in franchise history. However, after Sunday’s 6-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, it’s time to start thinking about some changes for the Flames.

And I’m not talking about silly changes like trading James Neal for Milan Lucic to get more “toughness”. I’m talking actual, real changes. Changes that might, you know, help the team. Because the Flames Stanley Cup window is quickly slamming shut.

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When a team struggles, it’s inevitable their best players get blamed at some point. It is what is. But let’s be fair, the Flames’ best players do deserve criticism. Going into this season, few duos in the NHL were more productive than Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau. Combined, they had 70 goals and 181 points last season.

If you include Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk, that quartet had 336 points. Factor in Norris Trophy winner Mark Giordano and that’s 410 points, including 148 goals. If your five best players are, on average, putting up roughly 30 goals and 82 points, that’s a good recipe for success.

This season, the Flames best players have still been good, but they haven’t been as dynamic. Through 23 games apiece, Gaudreau and Monahan have combined for just 35 points. Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, Lindholm, and Giordano have combined for 34 goals and 85 points.

It’s easy to point the finger at them, and the finger is being pointed at them. The Athletic is even contemplating if the Flames should trade Gaudreau. By the way, the correct answer to that question is, “No, they should not”. Name the last time a team traded their best player and unquestionably came out on top. It almost never happens. And given how badly the Lucic for Neal trade went, Flames fans probably shouldn’t want general manager Brad Treliving to trade Gaudreau.

However, the finger should be pointed at head coach Bill Peters. He took over behind the Flames bench after the 2017-18 season. Peters led Calgary to an impressive regular season in 2018-19, but this season, the Flames have reverted back to being what they were before Peters – a team struggling to score despite having great players.

Peters came from the Carolina Hurricanes. During his tenure there, the Canes were never able to score goals. Here’s a look at where his teams ranked.

2014-15: 27th out of 30
2015-16: 27th out of 30
2016-17: 21st out of 30
2017-18: 23rd out of 30

Before Peters came to the Flames, they ranked 26th. He improved them to second, trailing only the Tampa Bay Lightning. Entering Nov. 18, the Flames rank 29th out of the 31 teams in goals scored per game.

Maybe the problem isn’t the Flames players. Rather, it might be Peters. Keep this in mind – immediately after Peters left, the Hurricanes improved to 16th in scoring. Sebastian Aho went from being merely a pretty good player to being one of the most exciting players in the league. Jaccob Slavin stopped being underrated because people finally saw how good he was.

Even though the Flames were great offensively last season, those numbers were skewed a bit. As I pointed out earlier, they got over half of their goals from five players. That’s not ideal. Five players had over 70 points. The next closest player had 47 points.

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If the Flames struggles continue, changes need to be made. But those changes should be made behind the bench or in the front office. It’s far easier to find a new general manager or head coach than it is to find another Gaudreau or Monahan.

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