The Calgary Flames made a coaching change on Friday as they officially announced that Geoff Ward of Waterloo, Ontario would be their interim head coach. The Flames were in need of a coaching change because Bill Peters of Three Hills, Alberta resigned.
Peters resigned after admitting to using a racial slur in the locker room while he was coaching Nigerian-born Akim Aliu of the Rockford IceHogs in the American Hockey League during the 2009-10 season. The IceHogs are the top affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Ward had been the Flames associate coach the last two seasons. Prior to that he spent seven seasons as an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins from 2007-2014 and three seasons with the New Jersey Devils from 2015-2018.
Ward also has prior head coaching experience with the Kitchener Rangers and Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League, the Arkansas Riverblades of the ECHL, the Bad Nauheim EC and Iserlohn Roosters in Germany and the Toronto Roadrunners, Hamilton Bulldogs and Edmonton Roadrunners in the American Hockey League. It is interesting that Ward never played professional hockey.
The Flames are currently in sixth place in the Pacific Division with 28 points. They are seven points back of the division leading Edmonton Oilers.
