[2macinnis2]

An excellent point-total regular season largely erased by a nothing-short-of-catastrophic playoff vs Colorado. This isn't easy to evaluate.

First off, I want to reiterate my point of view that beyond any single player, the head coach is going to be the single most important figure in terms of achieving success. Around the league, this continues to be true (look at Gallant, and how does Trotz win a Cup and then take a team that just lost their best player and produce their best result in recent memory, playoffs included?!) Without Quenneville, I don't believe the Hawks dynasty ever happens. The last memorable Flames season/post-season wasn't driven by a "line-driving #1 center"... it was driven by the best head coach in recent Flames history that went on to win 2 Cups after his departure. No accident.

So, on to Peters. I thought the dynamic he brought in post-GG was more than welcome. GG was a straight-up awful coach. His willingness to adjust in game and blend lines clearly worked well for much of the season. His best players responded well for him, and his Carolina bring-alongs also for the most part produced very well. Keeping shot totals against down all season, especially with questions at goalie, is also to be commended. Peters showed he has potential, he I think he is still very raw.

With that said, my #1 disappointment in the playoffs on this team was Peters. He had absolutely no answers for an Avalanche team that was firing on all cylinders going into the playoffs. No meaningful tactical adjustments, no inspiration to reassure and motivate slumping players. They had been a slumping team for a while, and they ran into a team that caught fire just to make it in. It's easy/popular to point to MacKinnon as the obvious reason the Avs won, but it misses the point that the Avalanche from top to bottom outclassed the Flames. When scrubs like JT Compher, Colin Wilson, and Nieto are having you for lunch, and you can't crack the defense of a team without more than 1-2 guys you'd suit up on your blue line for a full season, the difference in the series is far more than 1 player.

Barry Trotz and Joel Quenneville were outstanding regular season coaches for a long time before they started realizing playoff success, with different teams mind you. Every coach trajectory is different (look how useless some of the older coaches like Hitchcock have become, despite historic success). Sometimes team/fit do have something to do with it as well, but I also don't question these coaches also improve with experience. This was an issue with taking on a coach like Peters (or GG for that matter), in that maybe you have potential, but will the training of the coach waste years of top level players in their prime?

I have legitimate concerns about the damage done to the psyche of core Flames players over the past 2 months, culminating this past week. What kind of season next year can we expect from our best players? Do they have the mindset that 82 games of hard work and success can evaporate quickly in 1 bad week? Do they believe the chatter that they aren't playoff-built anyhow? Adding 1 or 2 UFAs won't solve those problems. And contrary to what is pervasive on these boards, our top players ARE really, really good at hockey (yes, that includes Monahan).

Ultimately, I would grade Peters a C. I thought he showed flashes but was an unmitigated disaster in the playoff series. He had to better recognize what was going wrong early, like after game 2, and shape-shift the team's systemic approach. Whether it be trap, 1-2-2, shot-blocking lanes, whatever the approach, he's the coach and it was his job to find the right formula. He failed to impose any sort of adversity to a streaking Avalanche team. He was a total failure, to sum it up.

Where do we go from here? The roster will be tinkered with, but I doubt we see seismic change. It is a long offseason and Peters will hopefully get some counsel on what went wrong, and how he needs to learn from it. Here's hoping he does... quickly.