Mitch Marner stood in his hoodie and said he had repaired his relationship with Mike Babcock, sure. He texted his former coach after he was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, Babcock had played a weird, power-trip humiliation game with him when Marner was a rookie. But Marner wanted to put it all behind him.“I think (if) people want to share their stories, do it,” said Marner. “I mean, if they don’t want to hold it in, it’s your story to tell. But for my case, I you know, I kind of forgot about it right away. I didn`t really care too much about it later on.”By that time, the hockey world was already cracking open. Former NHL player Akim Aliu tweeted Monday night that Babcock’s longtime friend and former assistant coach, Bill Peters, now the head coach of the Calgary Flames, had directed racial slurs toward Aliu when Peters was coaching the AHL’s Rockford Ice Hogs in 2009-10. He detailed the allegations to TSN’s Frank Seravalli.“He walked in before a morning pre-game skate and said ‘Hey Akim, I’m sick of you playing that n----- s---. He said ‘I’m sick of hearing this n-----s f------ other n-----s in the ass stuff. He then walked out like nothing ever happened. You could hear a pin drop in the room, everything went dead silent. I just sat down in my stall, didn’t say a word.”Peters was referring to the hip-hop music Aliu was listening to. The Flames pulled Peters from post-game interviews in Pittsburgh Monday night, and he was not on the ice at their Tuesday practice in Buffalo. Flames GM Brad Treliving announced he was investigating, and was taking the matter seriously. Treliving said Peters would not be behind the bench for the Flames game against Buffalo on Wednesday. Two former Ice Hogs had already independently corroborated the allegations to TSN.Testimony begets testimony. Czech player Michal Jordan, who played 74 games for Peters over parts of two seasons wi ...
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