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Around the NHL 2016-2017

spndnchz

By spndnchz
in The Aud Club

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darksabre Hall of Famer

darksabre

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure I understand the firing. From what I could tell the locker room in Florida was in good shape. Players seemed to have good chemistry. The record this season isn't amazing but it's not like they're Buffalo.

 

Sooooo, meddling?

JJFIVEOH All Star

JJFIVEOH

Posted
Posted

This is all political. The sleazebag from Brooklyn who bought the team, Vinny Viola, has been bringing in all his guys. It's why Tallon got pushed aside from his GM spot. Apparently there was differences between management and coaching about the direction of the team and Viola needed a reason to get his buddies involved. He is a fan favorite, the players love him, and this certainly doesn't have anything to do with performance. Don't be surprised to see Tallon gone before long. It wouldn't surprise me if he steps down because of this. I've hated this Brooklyn douchebag from day one, I just didn't think he would reach down as far as coaching to puff out his chest. 

 

Viola is about to ruin a 4 year rebuild that was just starting to come to fruition. You think attendance in Florida sucked before? Spuddy was a fan favorite, there are going to be even less fans now. 

 

I guess it's time to head to Tampa to get my hockey fix, I'm not giving that a penny of my money. 

TrueBlueGED Hall of Famer

TrueBlueGED

Posted
Posted

Food for thought:

 

Last year Jaromir Jagr shot 19.8% at 5v5. Barkov shot 13.93% and Smith shot 13.60%. This year they are at 5.41%, 4.55% and 6.25%.

 

PDO is just one piece of the puzzle but last year FLA finished the year at 102.1, 2nd in the NHL. So far this year, their PDO is 99.3 (18th)

 

Seems to me Gallant hit the perfect storm of being lucky last year, artificially inflating his value, only to follow it up with some bad luck making him look worse than he is. I'm certainly not especially familiar with the particulars of his coaching, but I think it's likely he's one of many coaches in the mushy middle of the coaching hierarchy.

 

As to why he'd be fired...record aside, he was given an extension by a management team that was forced upstairs in favor of the replacements that just fired him. I'd imagine there's an old school vs. new school clash going on, and given the general lack of success this season, I don't find it too shocking.

JJFIVEOH All Star

JJFIVEOH

Posted
Posted

Two of his top three centers have been out almost all year. He's got four new defensemen not to mention at least four new forwards. Things aren't going to gel right off the bat. He coaches a fast game, they've been playing better of late. They'd have a much better record if Reimer could pull his head out of his ass. 

apuszczalowski First Liner

apuszczalowski

Posted
Posted

Apparently the GM taking over had coached their AHL team last year for a bit. It's also coming out the it sounds like the move was because they wanted a 'new school' coach/approach over 'old school', and with the teams record being mediocre, they decided to make the move now.

That Aud Smell Hall of Famer

That Aud Smell

Posted
Posted

I know a bit about Florida (that they have a lot of good young talent and have been charting in a good direction), but much less about this coach (who is apparently a well-respected hockey person).

 

Mirtle Tweeted something to the effect that this is part of a process whereby robots take over the responsibility for coaching and, ultimately, and then ultimately GMs control players remotely with game controller type tools. He was joking, of course, but the implication seems to be that Gallant is old school, and the people who ousted him are new school.

 

All that aside, there's part of me that respects an ownership that is restless to succeed at a time when it seems like the team should be succeeding. This may blow up in their face, sure - but there's precedent for early(ish) season firings leading to success in the following spring.

LTS First Liner

LTS

Posted
Posted

It's not surprising.  The owner is a change body.  He loves creating change, all the time.  "Positive friction".  I'm not sure that's going to work in the NHL.  You might be able to get people who buy into it on Wall Street as there are people who want to spend 5-10 years burning themselves out to make a load of money and then retire.

 

The NHL players play for money but also have a passion.  Many value stability and any owner who exhibits a propensity to change for change sake is probably not going to draw well.

 

I'm sure all players want to be evaluated only on their metrics.

 

Well, scratch one competitive team from the Sabres division now.  I'd be surprised if Florida doesn't tailspin after this.

Randall Flagg Hall of Famer

Randall Flagg

Posted
Posted

From a fan at hfboards:

I was there. It was worse than the photos make it look.

 

At PNC Arena, the service entrance is where both teams leave the building. As a result, a crowd of fans gathers there after every game to look for autographs and get some face time with the players. Tonight, there was a mix of Canes fans, Panthers fans, and miscellaneous Jagr fans. I was out there with my 8 year old son because he wanted to get his stick signed.

 

After nearly all the Hurricanes players had left, the Florida buses were still parked at the loading dock. That never happens, because visiting teams usually have a plane to catch and beat it out of there quickly. It became a topic of conversation between the fans and security that the Panthers were taking a weirdly long time to leave.

 

Around that time, I checked the Canes GDT and saw a post that Gallant had been fired. So naturally, my reaction was to turn to the first person next to me and say something like, 'Holy crap, they're still here because they just canned their coach!". Which of course broke the news to everyone in earshot, and so everyone was talking about it by the time the Panthers buses finally pulled out.

 

By the time Gallant came out 10 or 15 minutes later, the whole crowd at the security gate knew what had happened. He had to come all the way out of the secure area into the public parking lot, with half a dozen arena employees helping him carry his bags to a taxi which was very conspicuously parked right in front of everyone.

 

The point being, what you don't see in those photos is the crowd of fans 50 feet away who were ALL taking pictures and video while Gallant awkwardly waited for the cab to get loaded. The worst part (and I considered not mentioning this, as it really doesn't reflect well on our fanbase) was one guy singing the "Hey Hey Goodbye" song in Gallant's direction.

 

So yes, that was just about the worst possible way it could have gone down, short of breaking the news to him on live TV or something.

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