Famous Coaching Meltdowns or Burnouts

[Canadiens1958]

Watching and listening to John Tortorella during the 2013 playoffs brings to mind coaching meltdowns or burnouts in NHL history.

Effectively Torts admitted that he cannot coach an NHL player, Carl Hagelin, to change gears or play at a variable pace as dictated by on ice circumstances. Basic youth hockey, pre-teen coaching.

He also admitted that he cannot coach a veteran player, Brad Richards, through a transition phase from a top six to top twelve role.There is an expectation that a veteran NHL coach given an elite best on best team with top six forwards would be able to craft a top twelve group of forwards.

There have been other graphic meltdowns or burnouts. Shoenfeld/Koharski, Toe Blake/Dalton MacArthur, various coaches throwing sticks and other bench area equipment on the ice, or officiating related emoting.

But has another coach ever made such a blatant admission, twice, that he is no longer up to the task?

Click to read more...

 

[Sentinel]

As far as meltdowns, Marc Crawford's outburst in 1997 against Scotty Bowman was legendary. And Bowman's response was epic: "I knew your father before you did, and he would not be proud of you today!"

 

[yave1964]

Meltdowns: Crawford against Bowman

Therrien melting down in the post season, pick the year

Schoenfeld, have another donut

Burnout: Keenan late in his career becoming a caricature of himself.

 

[cynicism]

Larry Robinson's last head coaching tenure didn't end well for him. Glad to see he's back on his feet.

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

I don't know about melt down, but I always loved Jacques Demers reactions after bad calls or games early in his career. I recall once, as he was walking off the ice, him throwing his glasses down the ice. Hilarious stuff.

And was it Larry Playfair who had that melt down in the minors a couple years ago, throwing his jacket and tie on the ice? Silly stuff.

Amazingly, Don Cherry never had a meltdown. He always used his antics to motivate his team. And usually it worked.

I don't think we ever saw Pat Burns have a public melt down, but I wonder what was going on behind the scenes. His teams usually stopped playing for him after a couple of years. That must have taken its toll on him.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Colorado

I don't know about melt down, but I always loved Jacques Demers reactions after bad calls or games early in his career. I recall once, as he was walking off the ice, him throwing his glasses down the ice. Hilarious stuff.

And was it Larry Playfair who had that melt down in the minors a couple years ago, throwing his jacket and tie on the ice? Silly stuff.

Amazingly, Don Cherry never had a meltdown. He always used his antics to motivate his team. And usually it worked.

I don't think we ever saw Pat Burns have a public melt down, but I wonder what was going on behind the scenes. His teams usually stopped playing for him after a couple of years. That must have taken its toll on him.

Short stay in Colorado, especially with Mike McEwen, Hardy Aasrom... bit of a circus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_McEwen_(ice_hockey)

 

[Boom Boom Bear]

Harry Neale attacking a fan in the stands.

 

[Killion]

Watching and listening to John Tortorella during the 2013 playoffs brings to mind coaching meltdowns or burnouts in NHL history.

Cant really think of anyone admitting such while still employed as Head Coach. In pressers thereafter, post firing, plenty, that theyd "lost the room" or whatever. Then theres this one, which I posted on another thread sometime ago;

As for the "Worst Ever" at the NHL level, lots of candidates, but I reckon Ned Harkness in Detroit pretty much takes the cake; a successful college Coach & GM in the States, he's hired by the Wings around 1970, a pretty radical move at that time as NCAA wasnt widely respected as a proving ground for players let alone Coaches. That summer, Ned apparently shows up at Gary Bergmans house, and proceeds to rearrange the furniture in his living room as if couches were nets, chairs players & so on, Gary standing there gap mouthed & stunned, the wife more or less freaking out. Harkness then gets into a spat with Bergman about the length of his hair, demanding he get it shorn into a brushcut, and meanwhile, expects Gordie Howe & everyone else to act like their 17, all "collegial" with rahs rahs & pom poms, just on & on.

The last straw was in a game against Toronto the Wings lost 13-0. In between the 2nd & 3rd Periods, Ned sinking to his knees in the dressing room, pleading with the players, asking "Why oh WHY wont you play for me"?. Sid Abel, then GM caught this act apparently & wanted to fire Ned on the spot but was held back by Norris & one of his sycophants. A Petition was then drawn up, every player signing it, FIRE HARKNESS NOW. Instead, he was replaced with the Wings top farm clubs Coach, Abel demoted to the farm, Harkness retained and bizarrely then appointed General Manager! Howe retires early, cant take it anymore. It took Detroit nearly 20yrs to recover from the Darkness that was Harkness, the sale of the club to Ilitch, Yzermans arrival & so on....

In terms of just general inconsistency, guys who enjoyed some success at the Junior levels & in the NHL but bizarrely would completely lose their threads, yet retained, perhaps fired or signing elsewhere, re-treads in the small world of head coaching & GM pools, you really have to wonder about Rudy Pilous & Billy Reay in Chicago. Phil Watson in Boston. Man, theres really a ton of em.

 

[nutbar]

Harry Neale attacking a fan in the stands.

That was one of the most memorable ones. Also didn't Robbie Ftorek throw a bench onto the ice when he was with the Kings?

 

[agentblack]

Pierre Page absolutely losing his **** on the bench yelling at Mats Sundin in the 93 ECQF v. Habs

 

[Sadekuuro]

Also didn't Robbie Ftorek throw a bench onto the ice when he was with the Kings?

Joey Kocur did, as an assistant coach with the Red Wings in a late season game in St. Louis.

 

[nik jr]

jack adams in '42 finals must be the worst, since it was an important part of blowing a 3-0 series lead in the finals.

if it is true that art ross told billy coutu to start a brawl and hit a referee, then that should be counted.

 

[Super Fadio Bro]

That was one of the most memorable ones. Also didn't Robbie Ftorek throw a bench onto the ice when he was with the Kings?

He coached the Devils but yes, he did threw a bench.

 

[mco543]

I vaguely remember hearing that Scotty Bowman challenged or berated Claude Lemieux while Claude walked past the Detroit bus to his car with his family after one of those heated Wings/Avs playoff games.

 

[Big Phil]

I don't think we ever saw Pat Burns have a public melt down, but I wonder what was going on behind the scenes. His teams usually stopped playing for him after a couple of years. That must have taken its toll on him.

No, not normally. But I have never seen a coach so mad in my life as I saw Burns back in 1998. It's the first round, Boston and Washington are tied 1-1 in the series and PJ Axelsson scores an apparent overtime goal. Tim Taylor's foot is in the crease ever so slightly. When the goal was called off, Burns went ballistic. You could see him mouthing the words: "That's f%$#ing b*&% s**t" on the bench. But it wasn't just that, it was just how enraged he looked. He looked as if he could kill a man. As it was, Washington scored the overtime winner, won the series and advanced to the Cup final. 1998 was a year of upsets and if Boston got out of the first round you can argue they were the best team in the East after those upsets. So there was a bit of a meltdown, but I don't blame him.

Terry Crisp in the 1990 playoffs. Calgary's goal in overtime gets called off and he pops a vain.

I don't know who to blame on this, but Capitals GM George McPhee and Hawks coach Lorne Molleken confronted each other in the hallways once. It was well publicized at the time.

 

[iamjs]

Herb Brooks went after then-Avalanche announcer John Kelly, shoving him and verbally berating him after a game for suggesting that Barnaby was faking an injury.

Pittsburgh Penguins Coach Herb Brooks was suspended indefinitely by the National Hockey League yesterday for a profanity filled tirade at a television commentator.

After the Penguins' loss at Colorado on Thursday, Brooks had to be restrained by security from going after John Kelly, the Avalanche television play-by-play announcer.

Kelly suggested Penguins forward Matthew Barnaby faked an injury after being hit by Colorado's Aleksei Gusarov with 27 seconds left in the game.

Barnaby was on the ice, apparently unconscious, for about a minute before being taken to the locker room. No penalty was called.

''Did you make that call on Barnaby?'' Brooks shouted. ''You say he has a tendency to embellish? What the hell kind of call was that? You aren't half the person your dad was.''

Kelly's father, Dan, is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who was the voice of the St. Louis Blues for 21 years.

Brooks said Gusarov should have been assessed a major penalty.

''Look at the tape,'' Brooks said. ''He tore his head off. We have two referees and they can't find that? Barnaby is just coming off a concussion. He was flat out -- knocked out -- and the referees didn't see it.''

Barnaby, who complained of concussion-like symptoms after the hit, missed last night's game against Nashville, which the Penguins lost by 4-2. He has already missed 12 games this season with a strained knee and concussion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/16/sports/nhl-roundup-brooks-suspended-for-tirade.html

Brooks ended up being suspended for three games for the incident.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...xecutive-vice-president-herb-brooks-upper-lip

 

[Psycho Papa Joe]

Boom Boom with the habs in 79-80. Made him physically ill coaching in Montreal and he packed it in part way through his first and only season as Habs coach.

 

[IComeInPeace]

Don Perry with the Kings...

It was Jim Playfair, not Larry who had the epic meltdown, I believe.

Bill Laforge seemed to be in way over his head, and seemed to be losing his mind more and more every day. Go team PHD!"
He had the teams best goal scorer run "the gauntlet" soon after neck surgery, which led to Darcy Rota being forced to retire. That was straight out of the Eddie Shore school of coaching.

He never coached in the NHL, but Ernie "Punch" McLean had what I would consider the greatest meltdown ever for a coach.
He had a player Jon Paul Kelly (who I believe made it to the NHL, and is best remembered for knocking a 51 yr old Gordie Howe over the boards with a body check) who had lost an eye in a hockey game not long before a brawl broke out. Kelly had just recently come back from the eye injury, when during a brawl, the opposition goalie started to mock Kelly by skating around the ice pretending to be a blind man. Punch lost his mind, hopped over the boards (all the players from both teams were already on the ice fighting) and charged at the goalie. Punch grabbed the goalie and I believe made some type of serious threat against the goalies well being of he didn't cut that stuff out.

You can watch that on YouTube...
Hockey was a very different game back then!

 

[Crosbyfan]

Boom Boom with the habs in 79-80. Made him physically ill coaching in Montreal and he packed it in part way through his first and only season as Habs coach.

About 10 years prior, Claude Ruel struggled with the pressure in
Montreal as well.

 

[double5son10]

I don't think we ever saw Pat Burns have a public melt down, but I wonder what was going on behind the scenes. His teams usually stopped playing for him after a couple of years. That must have taken its toll on him.

When I think vein popping behind the bench I think of Burns. Big Phil mentions his freakout behind the Bruins bench in the playoffs in '98.

Pat screaming at Tom Watt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4itMaL6sxvM

and who could ever forget Pat trying to throw hammers with Melrose after Gilmour got decked by McSorley? (@ the 2:35 mark)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YBgizeRwLk

Burns was an Irish cop through and through. Tough and passionate to the point of near cardiac. Not surprising he had a relatively short shelf-life everywhere he went.

 

[frontsfan2005]

Bryan Murray losing it with LA Kings colour commentator Jim Fox in 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8tA1RGGjz0

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Coaching at the top level of a major sport strikes me as one of the most psychologically demanding jobs in the world. The combination of extreme pressure, public attention, frustration and man management would probably wear out most people pretty quickly.

Perhaps it's better to ask: Can you think of a coach who never lost his cool at all? Who seemed to handle it all in stride and with casual ease both while coaching and thereafter?

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

Bryan Murray losing it with LA Kings colour commentator Jim Fox in 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8tA1RGGjz0

Watching Murray as GM of the Senators (CBC was showing brief clips of him in his private box) was priceless. All the twisting, twitching and face contortions as he watched the game was woth the price of admission.

 

[tony d]

This:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmw2kROYvV8

 

[jkrx]

I don't know about melt down, but I always loved Jacques Demers reactions after bad calls or games early in his career. I recall once, as he was walking off the ice, him throwing his glasses down the ice. Hilarious stuff.

And was it Larry Playfair who had that melt down in the minors a couple years ago, throwing his jacket and tie on the ice? Silly stuff.

Amazingly, Don Cherry never had a meltdown. He always used his antics to motivate his team. And usually it worked.

I don't think we ever saw Pat Burns have a public melt down, but I wonder what was going on behind the scenes. His teams usually stopped playing for him after a couple of years. That must have taken its toll on him.

That is simply not true at all.