I was saving this post header for the day Playfair got fired, but eh, what the hell...

Is there two Jim Playfairs? Because one of them I like. That would be the one that the players often talk about as a good teacher and a clear communicator; the one I hear in longer one-on-one radio interviews who's genial, frank, confident, and even kind of funny.

The other Jim Playfair -- here we go -- I have come to simply loathe. That would be the one who stands behind the bench with that ridiculous curl; the one who taps his teeth with his fingers, and has an expression that suggests he's waiting on biopsy results; the one who gives convoluted, barely-English answers at press scrums, in the manner of someone who's taking their MBA from a particularly lousy online college; and now, the one who scratches healthy Matthew Lombardi from the lineup for a road game against a potential playoff opponent who they haven't beat since Roman Turek was between the pipes.

I understand that sometimes you have to send a message to a player, even if it's to the short-term detriment of the team, but that was a terrible move. I didn't really catch the audio for the beginning of the game, so all I heard was a bit of mumbling about Lombardi being benched on Tuesday. Then the game progresses a bit, don't see him out there... camera pans across the forwards on the bench... hmmm, there's Friesen, Godard, Nilson, Amonte, Primeau, Yelle... uhhh... are you fucking serious?!?!

Lombardi had his rear stapled to the bench for most of the St. Louis game. If he has a this'll-show-you-Coach-you-asshole performance in him, wouldn't it be more useful last night than at home on Saturday night? (Flames are 10-1-1 in their last 12 on HNIC). Is there any circumstances under which the Flames are a better team without Lombardi? (Hint: no.)

The upside, such as it is, is that my disgust at last night's craptacular result was somewhat mitigated by how pissed I was at the coach (although it's agonizing to have wasted what was probably Jarome Iginla's best game of the year, and that's saying something).

Roman Hamrlik played what might have been the worst game by an NHL defenseman not wearing the copper-and-blue this season. He was on the ice for the first and third Nashville goals. On the 4th, he made the boneheaded play of the year: down 3-2, 3-on-5 PK, own zone faceoff with 10 seconds left in the period, and Yelle wins it; Hamrlik gets the puck behind the net, and... feathers it up the boards to Shea Weber? Did that really happen? And for the 5th (coffin nail) Nashville goal, Hamrlik was in the box for his 3rd minor of the night. Huzzah! Man, when the Hammer is bad, he is baaaad.

Yelle's giveaway on the 2nd Nashville goal was brutal, more for the fact that it was less of a stupid play than a lazy one... chipping the puck ahead with one hand on your stick is a play for Ilya Kovalchuk trying to give himself a breakaway, not for a solid, veteran defensive centre in traffic.

To match last season's almost-mediocre road record, the Flames merely need to go 6-1-1 in their final 8. Whatever -- although I think if they're serious about winning the NW Division, it might be time for the coach to ice his best possible lineup every night.

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Postscript: Have you seen Lombardi off the ice? As pro athletes go, he definitely strikes me as the sensitive type. He was on After Hours after the Canucks game last month, and sufficiently uncomfortable that he was doing the ol' "right arm straight, rub right elbow with left hand" -- if they had been standing, he would have been staring at his feet and kicking imaginary dirt.

The sensitive types can get complacent just as easily as the owly types, but I can't avoid the conclusion that this follow-up scratch was less about Playfair persisting with his message...

"Matthew has to be a lot better player for us, he has to be a lot more of an impact player for us. He has to utilize his strength and we expect him to do that."

...and more about Lombardi's quoted reaction to his in-game benching:

"It happens. What are you gonna do?" said Lombardi. "We won the game, that's what counts."

As the team enters the final stretch, Lombardi said no one is about to rock the boat because of things like ice time.

Was Playfair expecting a reaction like Tony Amonte's last month?

Even a couple of days later, he was seething. "What do you think my reaction would be?" Amonte had snapped Tuesday morning. "That's a bad question. Do you think I'm happy about it? I'm definitely not happy about it. I've got a lot of pride. I take a lot of pride in the game and in the way I play. No, I'm not happy."

And would that prove anything anyway? (Amonte is 11GP, 1-3-4, -2 since that scratch; same or a bit worse than his season to that point.)