Carolina Hurricanes: 5 reasons Bill Peters has outstayed his welcome

Carolina Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters could be facing a tenure in Raleigh with just 13 games left. How should his situation be treated?

Such a let down through 69 games this season puts the front office of the Carolina Hurricanes in a tough spot before the off-season comes around. Carolina has just three wins in their last 12 games, causing a collapse in the trying times of the end of the regular season. Once again, a Bill Peters-coached squad is destined to cap things off with record falling just below mediocrity

Unless the Canes pull off an absolute miracle, they’ll miss the playoffs for he ninth straight time, and they’re already bound for another losing record under Peters, not counting NHL .500 records. It did look for, for a good period of time at least, that Peters was bound to take the Canes to the playoffs for the first time during his four year tenure in Raleigh.

This rough stretch, coming just before the final dozen games of the regular season, effectively puts the Canes back into position to retool the roster for next season. Owner Tom Dundon already removed Ron Francis as general manager. The search to fill that position is already on.

Next up for the Canes, after losing to the New York Rangers on March 12 at Madison Square Garden, is a home matchup at PNC Arena against the Boston Bruins. Since the Bruins are the second best team in the Eastern Conference right now, and the Rangers are not even in playoff position, means a tough contest ahead for the Canes. Peters could be on his last legs here soon.

Here’s five reasons why Carolina Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters has outstayed his welcome with the team.

5. Lack of energy

One of the biggest problems for the Canes this season has been playing through a full three periods each night. However, while they do out play, and out shoot, a good portion of the competition, the results have barely shown on the scoreboard.

Whenever the Canes were successful in the past, it was through a steady energy that put pressure on opponents through all three periods, especially in the third. We’ve referred to it before, but that motto under former head coach Peter Laviolette during the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals run really worked (“relentless”).

Whatever Peters is doing to try to energize the locker just is not working out. It’s hard to tell if that’s a problem with the leadership on the roster, or the coaching. But it should all start with Peters sparking a solid energy level out of everyone involved.

This is his responsibility to make sure that the effort level is at least there to give the team a chance to win every single game. The recent performances in losses to the Rangers, 6-3, and to the Minnesota Wild, 6-2, highlight the ineffectiveness of Peters in this aspect of his coaching ability.

4. Naming co-captains

To touch a little bit more on the leadership aspect for the Canes, the whole co-captain thing is taking a turn for the worst this season. The home captain, defenseman Justin Faulk, is having is worst season statistically since coming into the league six years ago.

Meanwhile, the away captain, Jordan Staal, is having a decent season statistically. A lot of that has been boosted by the likes of the top flight Finnish wing combination of Teuvo Teravainen (who just notched his first career 20 goal season on March 12) and Sebastian Aho.

Staal is the best center the Canes had so far this season. Peters shuffled the likes of Elias Lindholm, Victor Rask, and Derek Ryan around too. However, the top forward line trio featuring Staal, Aho, and Teravainen emerged as one of the best in the Eastern Conference for much of the year.

The fault in energy and leadership goes back as much to Faulk and Staal as it does to Peters. The decision to name co-captains this season is a bad move, from the way it looks now, for Peters during the pre-season. We’ll see if the captain situation stays this way entering the 2018-19 campaign.

3. Misuse of Jeff Skinner

Even though this part of Peters’ tenure does not get in the spotlight too much, it’s an important factor to how he should be considered for his future with the organization. Assistant captain Jeff Skinner is in the midst of one of his worst seasons statistically with the Canes.

Skinner is also on pace to set a career low in the plus/minus department, and this is not the worst Canes team that he’s been on since he entered the league in 2010 either. Although Skinner does have 20 goals on the season, he’s still 17 short of the mark he posted last season.

The fact that Peters stuck Skinner on the third forward line for most of the season is egregious and should be dealt with come the off-season. Skinner is one of the best flat out scorers on the roster, and should be used as such. Since the return of Lee Stempniak to the lineup, Skinner has been all over the place in the lineup each game.

Skinner is also facing one of the worst shooting percentages he’s ever posted in his NHL career. Naming Skinner captain might not be the right move at this point, but he should have been considered when Peters named the captains for the Canes. Skinner’s market value has dropped tremendously because of the way his situation has been handled this season.

2. Frustrating style of play/lack of ability to finish scoring chances

Section 328, (a rather popular Canes fan page) put it beautifully on their Twitter page when they mentioned the frustration of having another disappointing result when posting at least 40 shots on goal against an inexperienced netminder. Once again, the Canes peppered the opposing goalie, on March 12 at MSG, to no avail.

The Canes have the second lowest shooting percentage in the NHL this season. It’s become a regular sight for this squad to see them at least double the amount of shots of the opposition, and it happened again last night. Hopefully, the Canes fare better against the Bruins.

The stat line appears solid for the Canes most games, under Peters, until you come across the final score. The style of play that he runs promotes puck control and a large quantity of shots on goal. However, the defense keeps breaking down and the offense cannot convert on scoring chances.

That all comes back to the system that Peters is running. He either needs to shake things up somehow, or the front office needs to find a new direction. The losses piling up are just one part of the frustration from the fan base.