The Morning After The Night Before, 28 November 2016

I realize this is a Canucks blog, but we simply have to talk about the bizarre firing of the Florida Panthers Head Coach. Gerard Gallant led the team to a Division title last season, a season in which the team won 47 games and reached 103 points. They are currently one game ahead of .500, despite Gallant’s former bosses changing 5 of the team’s D over the summer. Gallant was universally adored by his players, and times are worrying for Panthers fans.

We’ll look at other NHL news near the end of this post, but for now, I direct you to the game thread for the Panthers’ last game courtesy of our SB Nation cousins, Litter Box Cats. [Gamethread]

A select few comments as follows:

So let’s be clear: we may have owners we sometimes disagree with, but they are not pukes like some other NHL owners. The Aquilinis would never allow this to happen, for example:

Or let themselves get blinded by analytics:

Moral of the story: be careful what you wish for. Although I will still be hoping for a Willie firing, so we can hire Gerard Gallant.

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MORE TRIVIAL NHL NEWS

• In a really difficult situation - think rock and hard place - the Leafs have suspended goalie prospect Garret Sparks. I cannot work out where I stand on this. [TSN]
• Nearly six years on, but Michael Leighton has another NHl regular season win. Where has the time gone? [The Score]
• I love Barry Trotz. He is one tough bar steward.

• Boston’s Jimmy Hayes scored for the first time in 35 games yesterday. And we thought we had issues with Loui. And he only cost the Bruins Reilly Smith. [Worcester Telegram]
• Don’t look now, but that worthless coach Alain Vigneault is in the mix for the Jack Adams...[NHL]
• This is one team in Calgary I don’t mind:

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Question of the day: Would you fire Willie Desjardins to hire Gerard Gallant?