Wilson lays a new foundation for the Petes
New head coach runs first on-ice practice; will be implementing new defensive system
Rob Wilson got the chance on Thursday to start laying the foundation of how he wants the Peterborough Petes to play.
Nearly four months after being named Petes head coach Wilson ran his first two practices with the 27 players remaining on the OHL club’s roster following a three-day training camp. They took to the ice for two sessions at the Evinrude Centre in preparation for their first two exhibition games Saturday in Guelph against the Storm and Sunday at 2:05 p.m. versus the Oshawa Generals at the Memorial Centre.
Wilson said his top priority is to start implementing a new defensive system.
“We have some guys with offensive ability and we want to continue that but when you look at the goals against last year it’s a stat I’m sure no one was proud of,” Wilson said.
“We have to work on that part of it right off the bat. It’s going to take time. It’s a different D-zone coverage than they were working on before so it’s going to take some time to implement. That’s why it needs to start early.”
Wilson said so much focus of criticism falls on the defencemen for goals against statistics but he says he looks at defence as a fiveman unit.
“Defence is a five guy job,” he said. “I always say, five guys on offence and five guys on defence. It’s always easy to pick at your defencemen per se rather than defensive units.”
He started the education process with a video session at 7:45 a.m. Thursday.
“We’ll start using some key words I like to use and the guys will get to know them. I know it’s only August still, but it’s important,” he said.
The OHL pre-season will go on hold next week while players head to NHL rookie camps and tournaments. The Petes will play their final three of five exhibition games between Sept. 13 to 16.
“I’ll probably look forward to the later ones more than the early ones,” Wilson said, of the pre-season games. “I wish we had more practice time but I’m the same as every coach. Every coach wishes he had more practice time right now.”
Wilson said he was pleased with what he saw at camp.
“I think some guys came in understanding they have to fight for their jobs and I think the pace was really good right from the first puck drop,” he said.
“I’m interested to see, now that it’s thinned out a bit, how guys start performing. It will be interesting now to start to get to know guys, too.
“Getting to know their habits on and off the ice and their personalities and starting to get them to bond as a team as early as possible.”
Wilson said the toughest roster decisions will come at forward. The club is already down to eight defencemen and three goalies where the only real question is whether Tye Austin or Blake Curran serve as backup to Hunter Jones. There are 17 forwards left for 13 or 14 spots.
“There are some positions up front that are up for grabs,” Wilson said.
“We want to be quick and we want to be on pucks. We’ll see where guys fit in there and what combinations work. I think up front there will be some hard decisions made.”