On Friday, the Calgary Flames will fire head coach Bill Peters. The news comes four days after a former player said the coach directed racial epithets toward him while they were in the minors a decade ago.
Typically a quiet organization that does things the right way in hockey, the Flames have a news conference scheduled today which they are expected to announce the transaction. However, let’s recap what happened earlier in the week which brought this situation to light.
.@frank_seravalli: Peters' time as Flames head coach has come to an end. WATCH: https://t.co/Xh4dCRDDhu pic.twitter.com/Mb2eNojcfu
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) November 29, 2019
Former player Akim Akiu said on twitter Monday evening that 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.”
Then on Wednesday, the head coach admitted guilt in a letter of apology. Within that letter he said the following:
“Although it was an isolated and immediately regrettable incident, I take responsibility for what I said,”
Still the damage had been done at that point. From there, Peters was absent from the Flames for two days prior to today’s announcement.
The Calgary #Flames are holding a news conference at 12:30pm et/9:30am pt to address the team's head coaching situation. Watch it LIVE on https://t.co/BQGeAnElqf, the #TSN App & TSN Direct.https://t.co/3PTSwVFR94#TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/Gp43R3JpuX
— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) November 29, 2019
Peters was hired prior to this season to be the head guy in Calgary. He previously coached the Carolina Hurricanes from 2014-2018.
Aliu had this to say to TSN recently:
“This isn’t me being bitter. I sat on this a really, really long time. It broke my heart, I think it made my career go downhill before it started. This isn’t to the degree of [Colin] Kaepernick by any means, but if you play the race card, it’s most likely the end of your career.”
Finally, if you seek it out; the remark that Peters admitted to making was definitely pretty racist. It’s unfortunate to see a story like this anywhere, especially for a franchise like Calgary that boasts a really proud tradition.
Furthermore, this is likely the end of Peters’ coaching career in the NHL.
