Petes latest reclamation for Wilson
Petes players are hungry to score goals but they have to work on preventing them too
New coaches are generally brought in when a team has struggled or underachieved and it’s a spot Rob Wilson has found himself in often.
Now it’s his former team, the Peterborough Petes, where he won an OHL championship in 1989, who are his latest reclamation project after missing the playoffs in 2017-18. It was a shocking fall from grace for the Petes after reaching the Eastern Conference final a year earlier.
During 15 years of coaching in Europe, Wilson had success taking over teams in England, Italy and Germany. Early in the process, Wilson says he sees many similarities here to some of those other situations he’s been in and reasons for optimism.
“The excitement I’m feeling from the players is really good,” said Wilson, as the Petes prepare to kick off their 64th season at
7:05 p.m. Thursday when they host the Kingston Frontenacs at the Memorial Centre.
He’ll be staring across the ice at another Petes alumnus debuting as an OHL head coach in Kurtis Foster. Coincidentally, Foster played for Wilson in Germany and cites Wilson as a mentor.
Wilson said the receptiveness of the players to what he’s teaching gives him optimism.
“They’re excited. They’re hungry. If anything, that’s the thing I’ve enjoyed the most watching them in practices and games. We’re going to have some pains. When you’re changing systems and doing different things there are going to be mistakes, that’s normal. We’ll continue to work on that.”
That’s similar to all situations he’s walked into in the past, he said. Each one is a process.
“We have to get some continuity with our systems and our play. We scored a goal (against Kingston last Thursday) from a designed play and they all looked at me with a little bit of, wow, that worked. Those things will come. They’ll realize that what I’m preaching and teaching is going to be effective for the type of game we want to play.”
The style of play will feature speed while also working to cut down on goals against. Wilson says his goal is to win every game they play but, at the same time, he’s not going to make any predictions about win totals or where they’ll end up in the standings. He’s watched a lot of video of opposing teams and how they play but says those were last year’s games and in some cases there are new coaches in place.
“I want to go through the league before I would even think about putting any expectations on this group,” said Wilson, “but I’m very happy with what I’m seeing. They’re like sponges right now and seem to be really excited about going forward here. The work ethic has been excellent. It’s like any coach coming in you want to put your own stamp on things and your own systems so there is lots to learn. We’re making mistakes but the work ethic and the want to do well is there.”
The biggest focus is on the defensive systems.
“I’m hoping we can cut our goals against down from last year. We have guys who are hungry to score goals on this team and that’s a positive,” Wilson said.
“Everyone wants to score but some guys really want to score and they put themselves in position to score and put their bodies into harm’s way to score goals.
“So, I believe we’ll score goals but we want to work on preventing goals and moving forward from there,” he said.
“Having a young D-corps and young goaltending that’s an area we’re going to have to really work on as a team. Having five guys on defence and five guys on offence. It’s the way it has to be. I need every single guy, whether you’re a 25 or 30 goal scorer, to work with every single guy on both ends of the ice. It’s a process and there is a lot of learning going on right now.”
He’s had to do a lot of that teaching the past two weeks without six of his veteran players. Declan Chisholm, Semyon DerArguchintsev, Cole Fraser, Zach Gallant, Pavel Gogolev and Liam Kirk all attended NHL training camps.
“We’re not in a routine yet but we will be,” Wilson said.
“We’re at the one per cent level of where I’m hoping we can go. We’re nowhere near where we want to be and there is a lot of work to be done but it’s been an enjoyable start.”