The Florida Panthers are Dale Tallon’s team once again.
Tallon was ‘promoted’ to a hockey executive position in late November in a front office overhaul. The Panthers opted to go with a collaborative decision-making team and process and removed Tallon as the top voice in the organization. Tallon’s coaching hire, Gerard Gallant, was fired and general manager Mike Rowe stepped in as head coach. With a focus on analytics, the Panthers appeared to be trying something unique in today’s game. Well, at least they were.
Less than a month into the Panthers’ bold decisions, ownership has relented somewhat after a rough patch. Darren Dreger of TSN.ca reports Tallon will resume control of management duties and hockey operations with the club.
Dale Tallon is resuming control of management duties and Hockey Ops in Florida. Panthers need to get back on track and stabilize things.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 14, 2016
It’s bizarre for a number of reasons. Florida hasn’t put up many wins since Tallon was ‘promoted’ and Gallant was let go. The Panthers won two of eight games under Rowe. But, context is important. The Panthers got poor goaltending during the stretch, outshot their opponents and picked up points in five of eight games. Is it the best they could have done? Absolutely not. Is the two wins in eight games deceiving? Incredibly.
The 8 games FLA has played since Gallant was dismissed:
– 2-3-3 record
– 6 road, 2 home
– 268 shots for, 227 against
– 5.2 SH%
– 0.894 SV%— Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) December 14, 2016
Panthers co-owner Doug Cifu mentioned this morning that Tallon not being involved in the organization was hogwash. Cifu previously gave interviews stressing they gave Tallon a lesser role in day-to-day operations, but that he was still a key decision maker in the league.
Cifu re: Tallon this morning: "I read the stuff about Dale Tallon and him not being involved…again, it's complete bologna."
— Cats On The Prowl (@Cats0ntheprowl) December 15, 2016
Right now, there are more questions than answers. The ‘computer boys,’ the phrase elegantly used by hot take artist Steve Simmons to describe Florida’s analytics team composed of smart people from many backgrounds, non-hockey included, are still going to be relied on. I wouldn’t expect Panthers ownership to invest so much into analytics, only to completely abandon it at first sight. But, it does make things much murkier. Dreger reports the Panthers will look to make the team tougher.
Not saying Tallon will disregard analytic move in FLA, but expect moves made to better team D and make them tougher to play against.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 15, 2016
This could mean a complete, sudden change of philosophy or nothing at all. Regardless of the repercussions of Tallon’s actual promotion, the Panthers, once again, are trying to pick up puzzle pieces and jam them back into place after getting blasted for trying to change things.
Will it help? Who knows. But, the move is one of panic. Not getting immediate results prompted the change. It’s weird. Florida needs to #TrustTheProcess.
