There was a lot of posts that were not too happy at first with rumours that Peters was going to be the new coach. People quickly looked at his numbers and then underlying metrics of the Canes, and came to the conclusion that those metrics were eerily similar to Calgary's.
Now, of course the Flames experienced an awesome regular season, and everyone was happy about Peters (myself included), but questions started arising again quickly in the playoffs as he just didn't seem to be able to make adjustments in countering what the Avs were doing. Maybe he was and the Flames weren't executing - that's a different conversation I guess, but a coach has to find a way to make his team able to execute his gameplan, or find another workable solution that they can execute, IMO.
Either way, he was let go for his past, but there was a growing and ever louder contingent of fans who felt that he was not a really good coach.
Maybe Hockey Canada considered Peters a really good coach and he was on their radar, but does that REALLY say much? Babcock has been considered as some 'amazing coach', but is he? Do we really care what Hockey Canada really thinks? Know why I say this? I seem to recall a time that they were deciding between Babcock and.... Brent Sutter! Yes, Brent Sutter was heralded as some amazing coach himself by Hockey Canada, so does their opinion really matter all that much? Not enough to weigh it heavily in any direction over any other 'expert' opinion out there.
Coaching is a really mixed bag of failures and success. There are only two things that I look out now, and they of course greatly favour the experienced coaches, and will always miss out on any new 'up and comers' that will eventually go on to be considered fantastic coaches.
1) Has this coach won a Stanley Cup as a head coach?
2) Does this person have an actual track record of entering an organization and turning that organization around almost instantly - on more than one occasion? Has he seemed to make the team better than the sum of their parts?
Sure, you miss out on the Steve Sullivans, but you also miss out on the Greg Gilberts and Don Hays.
So, whether I am right or wrong, have an overly-simplistic view of coaching, or whatever else that probably (and accurately) applies, I will feel a heck of a lot better if the Flames find a coach that fits both parameters that I have. Oh... and please do the character research so just in case this guy did some terrible things in his past that will come out to embarrass the Flames again.
Just a track record of some sort - actually won a cup (since the last 2 didn't), and have a notable track record of improving teams (last 2 didn't). Just try something different?
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