Playfair Heats Up

I live in Surrey, B.C., and I'm not exactly rich enough to afford Canucks tickets, so most of the hockey I see live is at Abbotsford Heat (AHL) games. It's a good brand of hockey, and there's always potential for some entertaining moments. Unfortunately, I wasn't there in person for what's quite possibly the highlight of the Heat's tenure in Abbotsford so far, head coach Jim Playfair (the former head coach of the Calgary Flames, Abbotsford's parent team) melting down after referee Jamie Koharski (son of former NHL ref Don Koharski, who's of course famous for being involved in another legendary meltdown) tossed Heat winger J.D. Watt. Here's the video; skip ahead to 2:30 for the start of the play, or 3:20 for the start of the fireworks.



This is pretty impressive. Playfair yells at the ref, breaks a stick, takes off his jacket and then breaks another stick before leaving, probably enough to get this up into the pantheon of the top coaching rants of all time. However, hockey alone offers some stiff competition. Here's some of the other all-time greats:

Jim Schoenfeld on Don Koharski: This is the incident mentioned above, from the 1988 playoffs. "You fell, you fat pig! Have another doughnut!"



John Tortorella ejected for hitting a fan with a water bottle: Funnily enough, this one led to a one-game suspension for Tortorella and resulted in Schoenfeld taking over the team.



Don Cherry's Bruins called for too many men in Game Seven: This is one of the great coaching blunders of all time, and still came to mind 30 years after the fact when a similar error (also against Montreal) lost this year's Grey Cup for Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, his reaction is rather muted. The famous arm-waving introduction to Coach's Corner is from earlier in this game, though.



So, what say you? Where does Playfair's meltdown rank? In pure significance, it's probably below these three, as it happened in the AHL regular season instead of the NHL playoffs. We also don't have any memorable quotes from it (yet). Still, for sheer physical spectacle, this one comes out on top in my mind. Overall, I'd probably slot it behind Schoenfeld and Tortorella, but ahead of Cherry thanks to his muted reaction to the call. Leave your thoughts in the comments or get at me on Twitter!

Update: Completely forgot about Robbie Ftorek's bench-tossing, which Sean Leahy included in his Puck Daddy post along with a couple of minor-league meltdowns I hadn't seen before. This is pretty good; maybe even good enough to take top spot.

From Tortorella to Schoenfeld

Yesterday's news that New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella would be suspended by the league for today's Game Six against the Washington Capitals after squirting a fan with water and throwing a water bottle into the crowd [James Mirtle, From The Rink] was interesting, but not unique. Of course, Tortorella is famous for his temper; this video of him tearing a strip off Larry Brooks of the New York Post is hilarious, but it shows that he perhaps isn't the most controlled coach in the world. It's also worth noting that this came after he benched Sean Avery for Game Five for his own lack of control.

However, the most interesting part about this story is that assistant coach/assistant GM Jim Schoenfeld is going to replace Tortorella behind the bench. Schoenfeld, of course, was famously involved in a similar situation back in the 1988 Prince of Wales Conference Finals when he was coaching the New Jersey Devils:



Yep, it's that Jim Schoenfeld who confronted referee Don Koharski after a 6-1 loss to the Bruins in Game Three. Koharski fell down and accused Schoenfeld of pushing him; Schoenfeld came back with "Good, because you fell, you fat pig! Have another donut!" It's gone down in history as one of the most storied coach/referee confrontations, and even made it into Wayne's World.

TSN host James Duthie said on the air a moment ago that Schoenfeld is the only other NHL coach to ever be suspended for a playoff game. That's true, but only to a certain extent. During the Canucks' run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1982, Roger Neilson was the head coach, but he only got the job after GM/coach Harry Neale was suspended for brawling with fans in Quebec during the last part of the regular season. Neilson himself was kicked out of a game against the Chicago Blackhawks during the playoffs for the infamous towel-raising incident that kicked off the Canucks' tradition of Towel Power. He wasn't suspended beyond that, though, but it shows that there's a long history of coaches acting up in the playoffs.

What's funny is how things have changed, though. Back in 1988, the league suspended Schoenfeld for the next game, but the Devils got a restraining order issued by New Jersey Superior Court Judge James F. Madden only 40 minutes before the start of Game Four that allowed Schoenfeld to coach. This triggered a walkout by the game's officials, referee Dave Newell and linesmen Gord Broseker and Ray Scapinello, which delayed the game for over an hour. Eventually, local officials Paul McInnis, Jim Sullivan and Vin Godleski were recruited to work the game. Schoenfeld was later suspended for Game Five and things returned to normal. The Devils lost the series in seven games, and the Bruins lost to the Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Things appear to be taking a more moderate course this time. The Rangers released a statement Saturday night that they "disagree with the suspension" [Pierre LeBrun, ESPN.com], but there's no sign of a court order yet. President and general manager Glen Sather did send a strongly-worded letter [Jeff Z. Klein, The New York Times] to Gary Bettman about security problems in Washington. I guess they only bother with the courts for important things like digital media rights [Sports Business Journal]. In any case, it's interesting to see how things have changed over the years, and it's hilarious that Schoenfeld is stepping in to Tortorella's shoes.