The Panthers on Sunday night fired coach Gerard Gallant, and with the move their "purge is nearly complete of the smart hockey lifers" that Dale Tallon assembled as GM before being promoted to President of Hockey Operations last spring, according to Dave Hyde of the South Florida SUN-SENTINEL. The "old-school hockey minds have given way to hockey analytics almost completely now." When Tallon was "diminished after last season, Gallant lost his main protector." Recently promoted GM Tom Rowe, who also will become the coach, and Assistant GMs Eric Joyce and Steve Werier "see hockey differently than Tallon and Gallant." Sources said that Joyce and Werier are "analytics mavens who have Owner Vinnie Viola's ear." Rowe said his GM duties will now be "run by committee." That consists of Joyce, Werier and Tallon, which "should prove interesting if it's not just for show." Joyce and Werier are "analytics-favoring newbies with the owner's ear." Tallon is the "hockey lifer whose organization has been dismantled." Hyde: "Who has the power there?" (South Florida SUN SENTINEL, 11/29). ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun wrote Gallant "knew he was on the clock" from the moment Tallon was "'promoted' to president of hockey operations." Gallant "had been Tallon's coach," and now Tallon "had been punted from the day-to-day hockey decision-making" (ESPN.com, 11/28).
SHOWING WHO'S BOSS: TSN.ca's Bob McKenzie wrote management and coaching butting heads on how things should be done is "not an uncommon occurrence in the NHL," and a coach being fired under new management is "not a new phenomenon in the NHL." Gallant's firing is "not the first time it's happened; won't be the last either." McKenzie: "We all should have seen it coming, even though we kind of didn't." The organization in the past 11 months "made a series of what can only be described as significant changes to the power and influence structure." Tallon's promotion "wasn't really so much a promotion as it was a shift in the power base and decision making away from Tallon and towards Rowe, Joyce and Werier." Tallon is "still there, but he's not calling the shots like he did before" (TSN.ca, 11/28). THE HOCKEY NEWS' Ken Campbell wrote Viola and Panthers Vice Chair & Partner Doug Cifu "have a reputation around the NHL as guys who think they're smarter than everyone else." Gallant's firing "had less to do with the Panthers’ play than the fact that they want the world to know they’re going to run the Panthers the way they see fit." There is "nothing wrong with that," but "if you’re going to purge your organization of solid, good hockey people, you’d better be pretty sure that you have a better way of doing things." So far, that better way of doing things is to "install people with limited NHL experience on their resumes" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 11/28).
