It’s often referred to as one of the greatest coaching meltdowns in the history of professional sports, and Abbotsford Heat head coach Jim Playfair’s epic temper tantrum turns 10 years old next month.
The memorable outburst occurred on March 27, 2010 inside the Abbotsford Centre and began when Heat player J.D. Watt was kicked out of the game for running the Hamilton Bulldogs goalie.
Playfair didn’t appreciate the call, and after a brief discussion with the ref he began to express his anger.
It began with yelling (kids, don’t read those lips) and continued with Playfair grabbing a hockey stick and banging it against the boards. He banged that stick against the boards until it broke, tossing whatever was left of it onto the ice. He then ripped his jacket off, continued yelling and grabbed another stick proceeding to also break it.
The video went viral, with hundreds of thousands of views online and even made CNN.
“It’s not something you are proud of,” he told reporters after. “It isn’t my proudest moment for sure. It’s not to the point where it’s embarrassing. It is what it is. I can’t take it back. I can have you check my history and it’s just not something I do consistently. It’s not a motivational tool. It’s something that happened in the heat of the moment.”
Playfair was fined an undisclosed amount from the American Hockey League for the incident.
The Fort St. James native went on to work as an associate coach with the Arizona Coyotes from 2011 to 2017, and currently is an associate coach with the Edmonton Oilers.