Peters' Professionalism Shining Through

By: John Sparenberg

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in late December, 2015

When Justin Peters inked a contract with the Washington Capitals on July 1, 2014 and elected to leave the Carolina Hurricanes, the organization that had drafted him in the second round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft and the only one he had played for in his professional career, many assumed that his days in the American Hockey League were over.

Both Peters and the Caps’ management were pleased with the deal. At the time of the signing, Washington’s General Manager, Brian MacLellan, was quoted as saying, “We are pleased to sign Justin to a two-year contract. We feel he is just entering his prime and has a tremendous upside…”, and Peters said recently, “I enjoyed all my time with Carolina, but things just didn’t work out for me to go back. I was really happy to sign with Washington.”

Peters’ stats from the prior season with the ‘Canes also add credence to the assumption that he would stay in the NHL for at least the duration of the deal. The Blyth, Ontario native was coming off a 2013-14 season that saw him appear in an NHL career-high 21 games, saw him notch another NHL career high, seven wins (including one against the Caps), and sport a spiffy .919 save percentage.

And in fact, his Washington career was launched on a good note on a bad night in Washington’s third game last season when he relieved former Bears netminder Braden Holtby, who had a shaky outing allowing three goals on seven shots in less than ten minutes of playing time. Peters was solid the rest of the night in net, allowing the Caps to mount a comeback in a game that they eventually lost in a shootout.

Four nights later, Peters patrolled the Caps’ crease for the first time as a starter, and he was stellar, garnering first star of the game honors by stopping 20-of-21 shots in backstopping the club to a 2-1 shootout win.

But the smooth sailing hit some turbulent waters beginning with his next start, a loss in Vancouver in which he stopped 30-of-33 shots, and he would start only four more games in the 2014 calendar year (two losses, a no decision, and an overtime win against the Hurricanes). The no decision game was contested in Toronto, a two and a half hour drive from Blyth. In that contest, Peters surrendered only two goals on six shots in the first period, but was replaced with Holtby by Caps’ first year head coach Barry Trotz to start the second stanza. Holtby was shaky in relief, allowing three strikes on twelve shots, and Trotz put Peters back in net to begin the third period, and he finished the game allowing only one additional tally in a 6-2 Leafs’ victory, one in which Holtby took credit for the loss.

After the tough Toronto outing, which occurred on November 29, 2014, Peters did not appear in another game until January 9, 2015, and when he returned to the crease that night, he undoubtedly felt like he was back home again. However, home was not Washington or the NHL. It was in the AHL in Albany where he appeared for the Bears on a conditioning assignment start. New York’s capital was where Peters had launched his professional career, and was his home base for the first four years of his career spent under the guidance of the River Rats’ head coach, Tom Rowe.

“I didn’t know he played here,” said Peters of Rowe, who played in 34 games for the Bears in the 1981-82 season, and also played for the Capitals. “He was a huge influence. Being a first-year pro, he taught me what it takes to come to the rink prepared every day, and just little things. He’s a very detailed coach. He doesn’t let anything slide and holds everyone accountable. I think he’s one of the ultimate guys as far as development of players.”

In the Albany start, Peters was at the top of his game, stopping all 24 shots he faced to record his 14th career AHL shutout, and his first in Albany since he blanked the Bears on December 11, 2009, stopping all 36 shots sent in his direction, with current Bears’ coach, Troy Mann, witnessing this event firsthand while serving as Hershey’s assistant coach at that time.

Following one more start with the Bears, Peters was recalled to Washington, and made a couple of starts that resulted in losses, but rebounded with a win in what would be his last start of the season with the Caps on February 15th, stopping 30 shots against former Bears’ head coach Bruce Boudreau’s Anaheim Ducks to record his third win in a Washington uniform.

Two relief appearances followed for Peters after his downing of the Ducks, the first a perfect nine save outing and the second, an outing of 43:30 during which he allowed only a single strike against which concluded his season and his career in Washington to date. But recently recalling last year’s season of ups and downs, there is not a trace of bitterness in Peters’ voice as he reflects on last season and it’s ups and down and his current situation.

“My last start was against Anaheim, and it was a win. The last half of the season, I only had that one start against them and those two relief appearances, and they were all positives,” said Peters, who relieved Holtby three times last season but finished all nine of his own starts. “When you don’t get an opportunity to play a lot, you try to find as many positives as you can. There was a lot of team success, and that was part of the positives for me. Last year was last year, and it’s in the past. I’m here now and focusing on what I can do to get back to the NHL.”

Peters entered this season’s Caps’ training camp in a three-way battle with his current partner with the Bears, Dan Ellis, and Philipp Grubauer, and he had a solid showing, allowing only one goal in 84 minutes of playing time, but the Capitals elected to go with Grubauer serving as Holtby’s backup, and Peters was assigned to the Bears after he went unclaimed after he passed through waivers.

Being back in the AHL on a full-time basis has been an adjustment for the 29-year old Peters, although he downplays the challenge of the change of leagues that include the unpredictability of the majority of the players in the loop, where shots can come at any time from any angle, as opposed to the NHL where the players are very structured and the play tends to be highly predictable.

Additionally, he has already exceeded last year’s combined game total (12) with the Caps and Bears, having already appeared in 18 outings in Hershey’s crease entering the Christmas break. He also downplays the challenge the change of leagues presents, saying it’s more about keeping his sights on what’s ahead and keeping his mind on the present and his continued growth as a goaltender.

“For me, it’s just about taking the same approach. You’re so close to the NHL; the AHL is an awesome league and a development league. That’s the main focus here, to develop and get better, and that’s what I’m trying to do here, too. I’m trying to work at my game and develop further and improve. That being said, when you’re here, you’re only a phone call away. An injury or anything like that, and you’re so close even though sometimes it’s feels like you’re not. But the reality is, at any given time, you never know when that call is going to come.”

Entering the Christmas break, it’s been pretty much a 50-50 split in games between Ellis (14) and Peters (18), and that is no surprise to either of the veteran goaltenders, who were clearly informed before the start of the season by Mann and his staff that that would be the case, and that sits just fine with Peters, who knows that the grind of the season and challenges of the AHL’s schedule requires multiple goaltenders to carry the load.

“With the schedule in the AHL and the three-game weekends, you need two goalies. The coaches were clear with us from day one that we were going to be splitting the starts. Just knowing that I was going to have the opportunity to play on a regular basis was exciting to me. I’ve played with Dan before (in the Carolina organization in Charlotte of the AHL), and we get along well. He’s a veteran guy, and we have a good relationship. For me personally, it’s fun to be able to play again.”

Mann’s take on the goaltending situation that he has been charged to manage by the Caps acknowledges the complexity of it, and also shows his understanding of Peter’s situation and professionalism in dealing with the hand that he has been dealt.

“We were upfront with them right from the start. It’s not the ideal situation to have two experienced former NHL goalies. At the 20-game mark, we had individual meetings with all of the players, including the goalies, to review their game and to tell them where we thought their game was at. Since that time, we’ve gotten a little bit away from the rotation, even though both goalies have played since then. Now it’s more of a game-to-game basis.”

Mann continued, “Certainly the rotation has worked, but at the same time, we want to make sure that both goalies were get rewarded for their good play. Justin came down with a great attitude. He’s acclimated himself well with his teammates and has taken a leadership role. He’s helped our leaders in different ways, whether it be supporting our core leaders and organizing various parties, including the recent rookie party. He’s been right in the mix, and that’s great to see from a guy who spent a couple years in the NHL. It can’t be easy to be sent back down, but Petey’s been the consummate professional.”

Development is the name of the game in the AHL. For a veteran like Peters, while he obviously wants to shine and stand out individually and prove himself worthy of another NHL recall, he is also counted on heavily by Mann and his staff to provide on ice leadership that will substantially aid and expedite the development of the Bears’ rookie heavy roster, particularly the defensemen.

“We talked about that going into the season. The dynamics of our roster certainly changed this season. We have seven rookies on it, and three of them are D. We had a plan for Tyler Lewington to start in South Carolina and start this season with seven D. The plan was to bring him up on the first of December because of the number of games we have in December, and to get him acclimated to the team and the league. In terms of the lineup, we’ve been running 11-7 at times to get all three of them in the lineup at the same time. If we’re going with a six-man rotation, you can kind of hold it at two rookies, but it’s tough to go with three rookie defensemen in your lineup if you’re only going with six defensemen, and that’s where the goaltending comes in.”

During Mann’s time serving as a Bears’ assistant coach when Mark French was the bench boss, he witnessed Peters’ on-ice performances as the opposition against his club from afar on nine occasions over the years. But with this season quickly nearing the halfway point, he has now had a chance to frequently get an up close and personal look at Peters in Chocolatetown both on and off the ice, and recently he commented on what he has discovered about his netminder that he didn’t know before he became an ally.

“We had some great battles against him when he was with Albany. He was an AHL All-Star for a reason. He seemed to always give them a chance to win by making some key saves. One thing I’ve noticed now that I’ve seen him firsthand on a day- to-day basis is his work ethic. It is tremendous. He’s a very motivated player who actually still believes he can be an NHL goalie. He’s worked very closely with Scott Murray (Hershey’s goaltending coach) to refine his game, to hopefully prove to some people that he can get back to the NHL for next season, if not sooner.”