ARIZONA COYOTES

Coyotes’ newest coach has an entertaining past

Jun 13, 2011, 8:36 PM | Updated: 9:46 pm

A hockey team making a minor change to their coaching staff in the middle of June is like the plain looking girl in high school, it doesn’t exactly garner a lot of attention. That’s even more true when said announcement takes place the morning after the NBA crowned it’s newest champion.

Despite the uphill battle, the Phoenix Coyotes announcement Monday morning that Jim Playfair had agreed to join the team’s coaching staff as an associate head coach caught our attention.

It wasn’t because we find his coaching prowess to be a huge asset for the team (honestly we don’t really know what he’ll bring to the table from that standpoint outside of what the team’s press release told us). It was because his name sounded awfully familiar and thanks to YouTube we remembered why.

The possibility of a repeat performance is reason enough to show up in Glendale on a weeknight this upcoming season if we’ve ever seen one (even if you live in the East Valley and it will take you an hour to get home). A coach ripping off his jacket, shirt and tie like Hulk Hogan on the bench while breaking hockey sticks like most people break toothpicks is about as entertaining as it gets.

Thanks to Playfair having perpetrated one of the greatest coaching meltdowns in the history of sports, the Coyotes announcement underwent a She’s All That type transformation from plain looking to noteworthy.

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Coyotes’ newest coach has an entertaining past