Calgary Flames: Bill Peters must be fired immediately

The Calgary Flames went from the top team in the Western Conference to a middling team. The struggles can easily be placed on one man, Bill Peters.

Bill Peters is under a lot of fire on social media right now as allegations of racial slurs said against one of his former players has come up. People are calling for his immediate firing and while they are right to say that, the Calgary Flames can also fire him for being poor at his job.

Last season was a historic season for the Flames as they were the top team in the West and established a new franchise record in wins with 50. They ended up getting knocked out in the first round in just five games at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche.

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Ever since, the team has been a shell of their former selves and are 11-12-4 a quarter of the way through the 2019-2020 season. With the sheer amount of talent on this team, that is just unacceptable.

This team has offensive stars like Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm, and Sean Monahan and yet they are 30th in the league in goals per game (2.4). That’s night and day compared to their last season’s 3.4 goals per game. Their goaltending has not been too great, but David Rittich has a .912 save percentage which should be good enough for a team like the Flames.

Now, a lot of people make a big deal about the James Neal – Milan Lucic deal. Personally, while the trade was not a good one, it never should have been a big deal because I assumed Lucic wouldn’t get much ice-time anyways. Well, turns out I was wrong as Peters repeatedly puts Lucic on the ice when Calgary pulls the goalie and he also makes some appearances on their top powerplay unit. That’s just poor asset management.

What is happening in Calgary is eerily similar to what happened with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs had a great team filled with talent that was not playing up to expectations. Mike Babcock tried to make the team play in a style that did not fit the personnel and eventually that lead to his firing. Peters has tried to change things up with the lines but no spark came from any of his changes.

The players held a players-only meeting after the 5-0 thumping at the hands of the St. Louis Blues and the team has been 1-1 since (with the one win coming in the shootout). A few days ago, general manager Brad Treliving had some honest things to say as he pinned the blame of the Flames’ struggles on himself. The word “accountability” has been thrown around from top to bottom of this organization but nothing has changed.

It’s time that Calgary puts those words into action and make a legitimate change before it’s too late. Changing a coach always has a way of rejuvenating the players and with the recent allegations against Peters, it makes Treliving’s decision that much easier. The Flames have a fantastic team on paper and the coach is not playing them like one. Unless they want to toss the season away, Bill Peters has to go.