Panthers fire Gerard Gallant, name general manager Tom Rowe interim head coach

The moves were all made Sunday night after Florida’s 3-2 loss in Carolina. While it’s far too simplistic to lay this on the fundamental differences between an analytically minded front office and an old-school head coach, it’s not wrong to describe it that way either.

The Panthers won the Atlantic Division previous year but are only 11-10-1 this season, 10th in the Eastern Conference after Sunday night’s 3-2 loss at Carolina.

But Cherry doesn’t believe that’s reason to fire Gallant, a move that was confirmed by the NHL Monday morning.

Sportsnet analyst Doug MacLean says that Gerard Gallant’s tenure as head coach of the Florida Panthers was never going to work. Assistant coach Mike Kelly was also fired.

During last season, Gallant served as the head coach for the Atlantic Division All-Stars and the veteran coach was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award.

But the Panthers have struggled to gather momentum this season, with their loss Sunday dropping their record to 11-10-1. “It’s a team that we have had some success against, but I feel it is a little bit different of a team now than the one we have had so much success against in the past”. Furthermore, the Panthers added both Jason Demers and James Reimer in the off-season and those acquisitions had to raise the bar in Florida. “I think we did a good job (in the last two games), but we obviously want him back as soon as we can”. Viktor Stalberg got the Canes on the board, Skinner scored on a breakaway to tie the score, and Derek Ryan’s power-play goal at 8:49 of the period gave Carolina the 3-2 lead.

Rowe was brought to the Panthers as Associate General Manager under Dale Tallon on January 1, and was promoted to GM in mid-May after Tallon was moved up the front-office chart as well. While Florida hasn’t lived up to expectations yet, it’s probably not Gallant’s fault.

Florida’s Jaromir Jagr played in his 1,651st National Hockey League game, tying him with Chris Chelios for fifth in National Hockey League history.

On Sunday, the Panthers jumped out with a pair of quick goals from Jonathan Marchessault and Jaromir Jagr to take a 2-0 lead into the first break.

“In a text message to the Sun Sentinel, Gallant said: “[I’d] just like to thank the Panthers for two great years and I’m going to really miss my players and staff”.

But with George and Harvey nowhere to be found, and few local media interested in the Panthers locker room, Gallant went out to face the media (such as it was) an unknowing dead man walking. No coach has ever lasted into a fourth season with the Panthers.