Who is that masked man?
The Ducks have a third goalie on the payroll, one more experienced than both Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Jonas Hiller. Despite the constraints of the active roster and the salary cap, he's not on the verge of getting cut. This goalie has learned from some of the game's legendary netminders. He's looked sharp in camp and worked just as hard -- extending himself on every shot and skating every sprint -- as Giguere and Hiller. Only his plain-white goalie mask pales in comparison.
His name is Pete Peeters.
Yes, that mystery man buried in a swath of white padding worthy of the Michelin Man is the Ducks' new goaltending consultant, a "young kid trapped in an old body" by his own description. The 52-year-old Peeters, a veteran of 13 NHL seasons with the Flyers, Capitals and Bruins from 1978-1991, looks trapped in the modern equipment. But not on the ice.
"I think it's a unique situation and I kind of get a little bit of a chuckle out of it," head coach Randy Carlyle said. "He's not trying to come back."
Still, Peeters looks good enough between the pipes to make you wonder -- which is sort of the point. After all, what good are the lessons he's trying to impart as a coach unless he can tangibly prove they work?
"Established goalies, you have to earn their trust," he said. "The younger guys are more wiling to listen because they aspire to get to the NHL. Sometimes their wall is this thick and it's easier to explain things."
Peeters said he started coaching between the pipes as soon as he started coaching, in the 1994-95 season with the Winnipeg Jets. Among his first pupils were then-veteran Tim Cheveldae and then-rookie Nikolai Khabibulin. Peeters enjoyed his longest coaching stint with the Edmonton Oilers from 2001-09, mentoring Dwayne Roloson, Tommy Salo and Ty Conklin, among others.
Should any of them go into coaching, they might copy Peeters' method. After all, that's what he did.
As a rookie with the Flyers in 1978 his goalie coach was Jacques Plante, a Hall of Famer whose 437 career wins rank sixth all-time. Plante was approaching 50 at the time, but "Bobby Clarke, Reggie Leach, Rick MacLeish ... they couldn't score on him," Peeters recalled.
Carlyle said he knows of only one other goalie coach in the modern game who teaches on the ice, in full equipment -- Rick St. Croix, now a minor-league coach, who came up in the Flyers' organization at the same time as Peeters.
Plante's example seems to have carried a long way.
"Yes, the game of goaltending has changed in certain aspects, but a lot of the basics hold true," Peeters said.
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
Leave a comment