BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters is now being accused of punching and kicking players while he was in Carolina, adding to an allegation that he directed racist slurs at a Nigerian-born player in the minors 10 years ago.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour on Wednesday said ”for sure that happened” in backing a former player’s complaints of Peters physically going after his own players behind the bench during his four seasons in Carolina.
Brind’Amour’s comments increase the scrutiny on Peters, whose future in Calgary remains in question.
Peters has not commented or been with his team over the past two days while the NHL and the team investigate allegations made by Akim Aliu, who said Peters ”dropped the N bomb several times” because he didn’t like the player’s choice of music. The alleged confrontation happened during the 2009-10 season while the two were with the Chicago Blackhawks minor league affiliate in Rockford, Illinois.
Peters traveled with the team to Buffalo on Tuesday, a day after Aliu posted his allegations on Twitter. But Peters’ whereabouts were unknown with the Flames only saying he won’t be behind the bench for Calgary’s game at Buffalo on Wednesday night. Associate coach Geoff Ward will serve as coach.
Brind’Amour, who was an assistant on Peters’ staff, said he was proud of the way players and support staff handled what happened by immediately bringing their concerns to team officials.
”Management handled it directly and never heard of it again and never saw anything else after that,” said Brind’Amour, who spoke to reporters in New York before the Hurricanes game against the Rangers. ”So it was definitely dealt with, in my opinion, correctly. … We’ve definitely moved past that.”
Brind’Amour took over as coach after Peters opted out of his contract following the 2017-18 season. Peters was then immediately hired by the Flames, where he led the team to a 50-win season and a Pacific Division title in his first year.
Flames general manager Brad Treliving is overseeing the investigation into Peters, and on Tuesday said he’s spoken to the coach and Aliu plus many others. Treliving was not made available for comment Wednesday.
Ward and Flames players attempted to place the focus on the game, not Peters.
”I don’t have any comment about that, I’m just here to talk about hockey,” Ward said. ”Everything else will be decided when everybody’s done their due diligence on it.”
Ward said the Flames have not informed him anything more about his role except that he will be coaching his first NHL game. He has more than 25 years of coaching experience, and joined Peters’ staff this season after spending the past three years as an assistant in New Jersey.
”We all feel for everybody involved. It’s not a perfect situation,” Ward said. ”We’ll worry about the next step once we get through this game today.”
The Flames arrived in Buffalo just 1-5-2 in their past eight games. They open a three-game homestand Saturday against Ottawa.
”All this extraneous stuff that’s going on, we’re just not even thinking about it,” center Derek Ryan said. ”As professional athletes, we go through different situations throughout the year where we have to block stuff out. And we’re just trying to keep that as another one of those situations.”
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AP Sports Writer Joedy McCreary contributed to this report.
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