LEGENDARY MELTDOWNS
An inside look at a few of hockey’s most infamous—and hilarious—“COACH NOT HAPPY!” moments.
COACH: Jim Playfair, of the Abbotsford (British Columbia) Heat of the American Hockey League
BUILDUP: During a 2010 game, a Heat player was ejected for committing an “intent to injure” penalty. Playfair did not like the call, and he “told” the ref about it, earning himself an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
BOOM! Playfair responded to being penalized by grabbing a stick from one of his players, standing up on his bench, and smashing the stick to pieces against the boards. Then he threw what was left of the stick onto the ice. And then he did it again with another player’s stick. As one announcer remarked, “He has lost his mind!” Playfair was promptly ejected.
AFTERMATH: The league penalize Playfair with a fine, but the coach said of the incident, “I’m not going to apologize for it. It’s part of the emotional level you have to get to be a professional.”
COACH: Brent Sapergia, of the Southern Professional Hockey League’s brand-new team, the Louisiana IceGators
BUILDUP: According to Sapergia, during a 2009 game, refs were letting the opposing team get away with dirty plays, thereby endangering his players.
BOOM! With the game still in the first period, Sapergia lost it. First he threw a towel onto the ice. Then he threw a Gatorade cooler. Then he threw a stick. Then another stick. Then whole bunches of sticks. Then just about anything he could get his hands on. By the time he was done, sticks, water bottles, hats, gloves, rolls of tape, even the bench’s two medical kits littered the ice’s surface. Sapergia was, of course, ejected.
AFTERMATH: Being ejected was nothing new to Sapergia; it was actually the second night in a row he’d been kicked out of a game. And that made the league very unhappy. Sapergia was not just suspended—he was banned from coaching in the SPHL ever again.
COACH: Greg Pankewicz, assistant coach of the Central Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles
BUILDUP: During a 2011 game, one of the refs attempted to stop a fight from breaking out—by tackling the Eagles player involved.
BOOM! Pankewicz became so enraged that he took off his suit coat and threw it onto the ice. The he took off his tie and threw it on the ice. Then he took off his sports shirt, shoes, and undershirt. By this time, the hometown fans were going berserk, and the shoeless, shirtless Pankewicz was pacing back and forth on top of the bench screaming at the refs. He was ejected.
AFTERMATH: Pankewicz was suspended for the remaining 14 games of the 2010–11 season. (He never publicly apologized for his rinkside striptease.)
COACH: John Tortorella, of the New York Rangers
BUILDUP: The Rangers were up 3 games to 1 in the 2009 quarter-finals against the Washington Capitals, and were set to close the series out in Game 5, but by the second period, they were down 4–0. And the game was in Washington, so the fans were really letting the Rangers bench have it. During the third period, one even dumped a beer over the glass—right on Tortorella’s head.
BOOM! Tortorella stood up on the bench and hurled a water bottle over the glass and at the fan…except he missed and hit a woman behind the guy. Then Tortorella grabbed a hockey stick and jabbed it through a gap in the glass, trying to spear the guy. The game was interrupted for several minutes before order was restored.
AFTERMATH: The fan was ejected—but maybe he shouldn’t have been. After viewing the game videotape, the league discovered that before the fan had dumped the beer on Tortorella, the coach had pushed the nose of a water bottle through a gap in the glass and squirted the guy. As for throwing the water bottle and trying to spear the fan afterward: major no-nos. Tortorella was suspended for Game 6. (The Rangers lost that game—and the next one too.)
BRIEF TOUR OF DUTY
Mikko Jokela’s first trip to the NHL lasted a little more than 12 hours, but it left him with a story he’ll be able to tell for a lifetime, not to mention a pair of someone else’s underwear.
The Vancouver Canucks called up Finnish defenceman Mikko Jokela from their American Hockey League affiliate midway through the 2002–03 season after a late injury to fellow Finn Sami Salo. Jokela, then 22, learned of his first trip to “the show” midway through morning practice in Winnipeg and was on a flight to Detroit by 1 p.m.
HOCKEY BAGS AND HAND-ME-DOWNS
His plane arrived at 6:30 p.m.—just as the Canucks were taking the ice to warm up for a game against the Red Wings—only to be told that his equipment bag had been misplaced. Despite the setback, Jokela got to Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena just as the national anthems were being sung and managed to make his way to the Canucks bench midway through the first period—with Trent Klatt’s extra skates on his feet and a Brent Sopel stick clutched inside Salo’s gloves. Underneath all of the borrowed equipment, Jokela was wearing new teammate Darren Langdon’s underwear.
WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU WEARING MY SOCKS?
Making his debut even more awkward was the fact that Jokela had been acquired in a trade with the New Jersey Devils less than a month earlier, meaning he didn’t get to meet any of his Canucks teammates during training camp. After a lot of stunned looks and a couple of “Who are you?” queries on the bench, Jokela hopped over the boards, took a drop pass off a faceoff, and wired a shot through traffic at veteran Red Wings goaltender Curtis Joseph. He was only on the ice for five minutes and nine seconds, but Jokela recorded two more shots and even spent time on the power play as the Canucks rallied with a late tying goal before winning in overtime. Jokela didn’t get to savor the victory—or his NHL debut—for long. The Canucks sent him back to the airport and back to the minor leagues the next morning.
1987: PURE HEAVEN
What was the greatest year in hockey? You may disagree, but we at Uncle John would like to suggest that both NHL and international hockey peaked in this memorable year.
THE BEST OF TIMES
All hockey fans have their favorite decades. For instance, many Montreal Canadiens supporters tout the 1950s, the golden age of the Flying Frenchmen, featuring such stars as Jean Béliveau, Maurice “Rocket” Richard, Henri Richard, and Jacques Plante. Fans of hockey fights gravitate toward the 1970s, when the Big Bad Bruins of Boston and the Broad Street Bullies of Philadelphia made their mark with tough guys such as Terry O’Reilly, Stan Jonathan, Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, and Bob “Mad Dog” Kelly. But few would dispute the fact that the 1980s were the ultimate time for freewheeling, high-scoring hockey with end-to-end rushes and defencemen joining the attack. Granted, things went a little bit nuts in 1981–82, when the average total goals-per-game hit an all-time high of 8:03. Still, as the decade wore on, a balance between offence and defence emerged, which all added up to pure entertainment for hockey fans in 1987.
FLYING HIGH WITH THE OIL
In the 1987 NHL playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers were willing to do anything to put the humiliating memory of 1986 behind them. The previous year, they’d lost a heartbreaking seven-game series to the Calgary Flames, as Oilers defenceman Steve Smith put the winning goal in his own net by accidentally banking the puck off goalie Grant Fuhr’s skate. The loss killed Edmonton’s hopes of winning a third straight Stanley Cup. A May 1986 Sports Illustrated story then accused several unnamed Oilers of cocaine abuse, further tarnishing the team’s image. But the 1987 postseason marked a turnaround. Superstars such as Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and Mark Messier remained at the team’s core, but GM Glen Sather also added fresh European talents such as Kent Nilsson and Reijo Ruotsalainen. The Oilers lost only two games en route to the finals, hammering Los Angeles, Winnipeg, and Detroit along the way.
THE NICE VS. NASTY
Facing Philadelphia for Lord Stanley’s mug produced the best finals since Montreal’s 1971 triumph over Chicago, and one that even rivals the New York Rangers–Vancouver Canucks classic of 1994. Nasty and nice highlights abounded, from Philly netminder Ron Hextall’s vicious slash on Nilsson to Kurri’s overtime winner in game two.
The Flyers rallied from a 3–1 series deficit to force a seventh and deciding game, and even though they lost on another big Kurri goal, Hextall was named playoff MVP for his brilliance. Gretzky, meanwhile, was at his playmaking best, leading the way with 29 assists and 34 points. In the first round, he got his 177th career playoff point, passing Jean Béliveau for tops on the all-time list.
INTERNATIONAL INSPIRATION
Rendez-Vous ’87: Hockey fans around the world had reason to celebrate in 1987. In February, the NHL ditched its usual no-intensity All-Star Game format in favor of a two-game series versus the powerful Soviet national team. Hosted by Quebec City during the annual Winter Carnival, the series was called Rendez-Vous ’87. The NHL side was Canadian-dominated but also featured Swedes such as Tomas Sandstrom, Finns such as Jari Kurri, and Americans such as Chris Chelios. The marquee Soviet offensive unit was the KLM Line of Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov, but the second line of Andrei Khomutov, Slava Bykov and a young Valeri Kamensky was just as dangerous here. Dave Poulin’s late tally gave the NHL a 4–3 victory in the Rendez-Vous opener, but Kamensky’s dazzling three-point effort earned the USSR a 5–3 revenge in game two. “There is no winner except hockey itself, for these were excellent matches,” said Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov. Wayne Gretzky led the scoring parade with four assists.
World Championship: Canadian and Russian fans would prefer to forget what happened at the 1987 World Championship in Vienna, Austria. But Swedish fans still relish two highlights. First, Tre Kronor secured a 2–2 tie with the heavily favored Soviets thanks to a tic-tac-toe passing play involving Anders Eldebrink, Bengt Gustafsson, Tommy Albelin, Hakan Loob, and goal-scorer Tomas Sandstrom. The International Ice Hockey Federation calls this “the best goal ever scored” at the World Championship. The Swedes then hammered Canada by a stunning 9–0 margin and won the gold medal on goal differential.
Canada Cup: The year’s best international hockey took place at the Canada Cup. The favored Canadians and Soviets both started out slowly, but they’d hit their stride by the time they met in a three-game final that’s never been surpassed for hockey quality or excitement. Each game finished 6–5. The first encounter in Montreal went to the Soviets on Alexander Semak’s overtime goal. But Canada came roaring back in the last two games in Hamilton. Game two saw Lemieux bang home the winner in double overtime, and Gretzky, who was so exhausted that he actually wet his pants, had a five-point night. Game three came down to an odd-man rush with Gretzky and Lemieux, and the Great One dropped the puck to Lemieux, who wired it over the glove of Soviet goalie Sergei Mylnikov with 1:26 remaining. Even in a losing cause, Krutov and Makarov were nearly as dangerous for the Soviets as Gretzky and Lemieux were for Canada.
FROM THE GREAT GRETZKY TO SUPER MARIO
Nobody knew it in 1987, but this was the last year that Wayne Gretzky was the unquestioned number-one player in hockey. He scored 62 goals and 121 assists that season, marking the last time he would lead the NHL in both categories. He also won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP and was named to the First All-Star team. But Mario Lemieux took the experience of playing with Gretzky in the 1987 Canada Cup and parlayed it into his best hockey to date. In 1987–88, the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar would break Gretzky’s string of eight straight scoring titles by racking up 168 points. And while Gretzky won only one more Cup, in 1988, Lemieux captained the Penguins to two championships in 1991 and 1992. Having two such offensive geniuses starring in the NHL simultaneously was a treat that hockey fans may never experience again.
THE MASKED MARVEL
How a painful shot to the face changed the course of hockey history.
Surprisingly, Jacques Plante was not the first professional hockey goalie to wear a mask. That distinction belongs to the Montreal Maroons’ Clint Benedict, who donned an awkward leather face protector in 1930. However, unlike Benedict’s, Plante’s mask was well-engineered for visibility and the rest, as they say, is hockey history.
HAVE A NICE TRIP
On November 1, 1959, the New York Rangers battled the four-time defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens in an early season clash. Early in the game, Plante stuck his stick out and tripped all-star winger Andy Bathgate, who went head first into the boards. Not wearing a helmet, Bathgate could have been seriously injured, but luckily he was not. However, Bathgate vowed revenge. He left the ice almost right away and used the bottom of the dressing room door to put a wicked curve on his stick blade.
HEAD’S UP!
A few shifts later, Bathgate took a shot that Plante never saw. It nailed Plante right in the face, and he went down in a heap. In the dressing room, Plante, who had always wanted to wear a mask much to Canadiens’ head coach Toe Blake’s dismay, finally had the perfect opportunity. Plante told Blake that either he would be allowed to wear the mask, or he wouldn’t go back out. Blake had no choice but to acquiesce as there was not another quality goaltender that the Habs could use (in those days, teams often only dressed one goaltender).
WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN?
Plante came back out on the ice wearing something that looked like it was from a horror movie. Bathgate said years later that he told Plante he looked better with the mask on. The hockey media and fans thought Plante wouldn’t see the puck, and the mask would only be a temporary measure. A headline even ran in French translating to “Halloween is over, Jacques.” However, while Halloween was over, the masked Plante extended the win over the Rangers into an unbeaten streak of 11 games. He would lead the Habs to yet another Stanley Cup title in 1960, and the mask was here to stay.
* * * * *
THE PUCK STOPS HERE
“If you jump out of a plane without a parachute, does that make you brave? No, I think that makes you stupid. I will never play without the mask again.”
—Jacques Plante
“Our first priority was staying alive. Our second was stopping the puck.”
—Glenn Hall,
former Chicago Blackhawks goaltender
“I remember playing junior in Seattle and I almost got hit by a salmon. I don’t know if it had to do with my style of play or what. It landed about two feet from my crease and splattered. I had fish guts on my pads for the next couple of days. Other than that, I’ve been pretty fortunate.”
—Byron Dafoe, former Boston Bruins goaltender
“There is no such thing as painless goaltending. If they could get enough padding to assure against every type of bruise, you’d have to be swung into position with a small derrick.”
—Don Cherry
“Every time a puck gets past me and I look back in my net, I say ‘Oh, oh.’”
—goaltender Bernie Parent,
when asked why he wore No. 00 in the WHA
A TALE OF TWO BLOCKERS
How injury forced a young goaltending prospect to tinker with his equipment.
As soon as goaltender Dan Blackburn hits the ice, it jumps out at you like a Janet Jackson breast during a Super Bowl halftime show. You can’t help but notice he is wearing a blocker on each hand, one to hold his stick like every other goaltender you’ve ever seen and another where his glove should be. The former Kootenay Ice junior standout uses it to steer pucks into the corner during warm-up—pucks he would normally catch.
THE PROBLEM
For Blackburn, the extra blocker has become a necessary distraction, his last hope to jump-start a promising career stalled for two years by a damaged nerve in his left shoulder. Despite finally undergoing surgery after more than a year of misdiagnosis, Blackburn’s nerve is dead. It’s caused a muscle behind his shoulder to waste away, leaving him with a softball-sized crater on his back and an even bigger hole in his game. Unable to lift his glove with his palm facing the shooter, Blackburn, who exploded into hockey’s conscience as an 18-year-old rookie with the New York Rangers in 2001–02, was forced to get creative.
THE SOLUTION
Born in an off-the-cuff comment during a meeting with Rangers president and general manager Glen Sathe
r, Blackburn began building his extra blocker, through trial and error, with the help of New York’s equipment staff. With the new blocker, which has a small glove underneath to smother loose pucks and catch high dump-ins, Blackburn can square up with the top of his hand facing shooters. Because he’s using a different muscle to move his arm, he isn’t hindered by the nerve damage. After getting medical clearance from the Rangers and approval for the second blocker from the NHL, Blackburn was ready to start his comeback early in 2005 at age 21.
HAVE BLOCKERS, WILL TRAVEL
The only problem: the ongoing NHL lockout left him without a place to play. Undaunted, he signed with the expansion Victoria Salmon Kings in the East Coast Hockey League, forgoing $850,000 U.S. he was collecting on the NHL disabled list to play for $750 a week. Two levels removed from the NHL and on the other side of the continent from New York, Blackburn’s double-blocker return almost attracted as much media attention as his remarkable rookie season with the Rangers. It was the first thing fans noticed and the only thing reporters asked about, leaving the young goaltender feeling like he was back at Madison Square Garden—when Barnum and Bailey’s comes to town. “It’s like a circus-freak appeal,” he said after four games with the Salmon Kings. “Come see the goalie with two blockers!”
EQUIPMENT OF THE FUTURE?
Even as he was preparing to play games again in Victoria, Blackburn was tweaking the blocker, a process he expects to continue for as long as a year. But he feels it’s getting closer to a finished product, one he plans to patent just in case the idea—and his career—takes off. After all, necessity has always been the mother of invention. “If I have a lot of success with it maybe it will catch on,” Blackburn said, failing to note whether the pun was intended. “It will all hinge on how successful I am with it. Who knows, if things go really well, maybe kids will start using it instead of a regular glove.”
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