Tom Rowe’s tenure as head coach of the Panthers probably won’t be that memorable, and on Tuesday morning, we found out it won’t be very long either.
According to Harvey Fialkov of the Sun-Sentinel, Rowe won’t be back behind the bench with the Panthers next season, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be leaving the organization completely. Fialkov adds that the Panthers still see Rowe as a “valuable” part of the team, so even though he won’t coach, he should be involved in some way.
Rowe was always going to face an uphill climb as interim head coach after the fiasco that was the Gerard Gallant firing. Everyone seemed to have a ton of respect for Gallant, and having pictures of him putting his belongings into a cab for all to see wasn’t a good look for the organization.
Monday was a particularly tough day for Rowe. Not only did one fan fly a plane over the BB&T Arena with a banner that said “ROWE MUST GO! CALL HIM A CAB” but fans also chanted “Rowe must go” during the game against the Canadiens.
“Fans pay good money to come watch us play. When they’re not happy, you know what, I’m a big boy with thick skin,” Rowe said after Monday’s 4-1 loss to Montreal, per the Sun-Sentinel.
“We’ve got a great franchise, we got great players. I want to tell the fans it’s been a disappointing year but we’ll definitely be back next year and we’ll be in the playoffs.”
The Panthers played a good chunk of the season with Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and even Aaron Ekblad has missed some time of late. Overcoming those kind of injuries is never easy, but the team having a 22-26-10 record under Rowe is tough to swallow.