On the Florida Panthers …
Darren Dreger: Several GM have confirmed that Dale Tallon reached out to them this week and told them that he is “back in the saddle.”
Harvey Fialkov of the Sun-Sentinel: The Florida Panthers continue to deny the TSN report that Dale Tallon has more power over the day-to-day personnel decisions with the team.
Panthers president Matt Caldwell said that is not true. Caldwell said on Wednesday night that Tallon has always been the “main voice” but they make group decisions.
Coach/GM Tom Rowe after yesterday’s morning skate.
“Nothing has changed at all,’’ Rowe said. “I know it’s out there. It just tells you can believe or not believe what’s on Twitter all the time. I spoke to Matt Caldwell, our president and CEO, and nothing has changed whatsoever.”
Harvey Fialkov: Panthres source saying there is a lot of “click bait fake news floating around”
Maple Leafs Hotstove: Bob McKenzie was on TSN 1050 yesterday talking about what is coming out of Florida with regards to their management situation and reports that it’s “fake news”.
“We probably don’t have enough time to get into this in detail, but I will anyways. All due respect to Harvey or not, Harvey’s full of crap. It’s as simple as that. Now, is it a confusing situation?
Yeah, it’s confusing. Here is the thing. Technically, nothing has changed in Florida. Everyone has got the same title. They’re going out of their way now to say nothing has happened. I will tell you what happened.
After the game the other night where they lost, and lost badly, Roberto Luongo smashed his stick off the boards and threw a tantrum as he went off the ice, and Tom Rowe threw a tantrum on the bench. That put them to 2-3-3 – seven points out of a possible sixteen since they fired head coach Gerard Gallant.
We do know the owner, Vinny Viola, met with Dale Tallon the next morning and immediately following that there was certainly word out in the NHL community that, whatever role Dale had before, there may have been some added responsibility.”