On May 17th, 2010, Dale Tallon was hired as the new GM of the Florida Panthers. Upon arrival and looking at the state of the organization, he knew he had his hands full.
Ownership was iffy and non-commital on paying players. Attendance was typically horrible. By and large the big club was a glorified AHL team, especially at the end of the year when everyone was all beat up.
Tallon spoke of a 5-year blueprint. It was a blueprint that he hoped would reshape the depth in the organization as well as the product on the ice in Sunrise.
After an epic free agent spending spree in the summer of 2011 that resulted in the Florida Panthers winning their first division title in franchise history and first playoff berth in a dozen years, Florida fans thought the five years had come early. As painful as it was to lose to the Devils in the first round in Game 7 in double overtime, it appeared that everything Tallon touched turned to gold.
Not so fast.
The next two years were absolute disasters, but with silver linings that are immeasurable for today's Panthers. The last two NHL drafts brought Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad to Florida, and they have clearly become two of the most important players on the team, if not the most important, for now and the future.
The veteran leadership from Jaromir Jagr, Willie Mitchell, Brian Campbell, Shawn Thornton, and Jussi Jokinen has balanced the youthful exuberance on this team perfectly, which has resulted in the second 5-game winning streak in a month. The Panthers are now 1 point of first place in the Atlantic division, have won 11 out of their last 14 games, and have already set a franchise record for wins/points in December with two more games to play.
Tallon's fifth year as GM has seemingly started to show the fruit of his plan from the very beginning.
A mere 4 weeks ago, the Panthers were in very familiar territory. The Cats were hanging on to their season by a thread. They were floundering, playing inconsistently, finding it hard to score, etc. For Panther fans, it was just the same old song and dance.
But then something clicked.
As Willie Mitchell mentioned, all of a sudden everyone started doing the little things right under pressure. Things like chipping it off the glass instead of forcing a pass over the middle or turning it over at their own blue line started to happen consistently.
Losing players like Nick Bjugstad and Derek MacKenzie for several games might have doomed seasons in the past, but the depth built as part of Tallon's plan continues to pay off. Logan Shaw, Corban Knight, Connor Brickley, and Dylan Olsen have filled in wonderfully as this season has progressed, and have been integral parts of this unprecedented run. This is the first time in franchise history the Panthers have put together two 5-game winning streaks in the same season.
Bjugstad is expected to return in the next 7-10 days, which will only help this white hot team.
There is going to be a lot more said on Sasha Barkov, who is simply becoming one of the stars of the NHL. Even better is his personality. It's as if he doesn't even know how good he is, and even better is he will continue to improve for many years.
Much to the chagrin of many hockey traditionalists that don't think ESPN knows anything about hockey, the Florida Panthers were recently ranked the 3rd best team in the NHL in the most recent power rankings. Last night's 2-1 against Ottawa did nothing to change that in what was a thrilling game for as low scoring as it was.
By the way, here is a shot of the attendance of a rainy weekday game against Ottawa, who do not show up to Panther games in droves like Montreal, Toronto, etc.
Not too shabby, huh? Attendance is up. The buzz is in the air. The Florida Panthers might have just indeed turned the corner. There is lots of hockey left so the verdict is still out, but for now the Panthers are the talk of the league, and rightfully so. They certainly have been through enough pain to finally get some praise.
Dan Spiegel
Florida Panthers Media
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