Yesterday the Florida Panthers had themselves a grand sell-off at the trade deadline. They swung deals with every team in their division aside from in-state rival Tampa Bay and also sent Chris Higgins to Vancouver. We actually liked what Florida did by blowing up their team but retaining their biggest pieces and made them one of our deadline day winners.
As will happen during the course of the season, and especially on deadline day, the beat writers will get their patience tested. George Richards of The Miami Herald and the outstanding Panthers blog On Frozen Pond was taking to Twitter throughout the afternoon and giving his thoughts on what he referred to as the #FlaPanthersSalaryDump and #FlaPanthersSalaryPurge. It was an amusing take to have on a day where the home team he’s covering in the midst of helping out everyone else get ready to make a run at or in the playoffs while the Panthers check out of the race for good.
One guy who wasn’t too thrilled with Richards’ take on things was Panthers team president Michael Yormark. Yormark took to his own Twitter account and gave his thoughts on Richards’ take on the day’s proceedings. As you might expect, he wasn’t exactly thrilled.
Before your imagination gets out of hand, the ADT Club is the club seating part of the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida - the home of the Panthers. Think of it as the VIP section of the arena where the seats are cozier, the food is better, and you’re probably there wearing a suit and hanging out with your corporate friends.
The insult, of course, comes across as spiteful and foolish since the Panthers aren’t exactly a team that draws a lot of attention in the first place (particularly on television) and ripping one of your two beat reporters comes across as incredibly petty. Let’s face it, when you’re in south Florida, hockey is just about the last sport that comes to mind and with LeBron James and the Heat getting all the attention in town these days, picking a public argument is about as pathetic as it gets.
Richards has taken the high road in the matter and rather than continuing the public snipe-fest he’s diffusing the situation rather nicely and says that they’ve “done this dance before, just not on Twitter.” Still, Panthers fans just feel deflated by the whole thing as Donny Rivette of Litter Box Cats sums up nicely about the whole dust up.Exactly what is being implied here by the president and chief operating officer of a National Hockey League franchise? A club with only two regular beat writers (there’s that annoying no-playoffs-in-ten-years thing!). A team which carries a diminished yet ferociously-dedicated fanbase into yet another “rebuild”, albeit one we can actually sign our names to with confidence. One step forward, two big leaps back.
Richards has forever gone the extra mile for Panthers fans in what’s been a limited market, providing video clips and real-time mailbags and a dozen other selfless offerings which a lesser journalist would never expend energy on.
If this is a personal rift between the two then it should be handled as such; not on a social media network. Helluva price to pay for whichever party winds up in the “wrong”, at least publicly.
Publicly biting the hand that feeds, and that’s just what Yormark has done here, never looks good and when you’re a guy in a position of power you have to be a bit more PR-savvy than this. After all, if you’re not liking what the local beat guy is saying it’s never been beyond a team executive before to take them aside and have a lively discussion.
Chances are that Richards and Yormark have been down that road before and perhaps Yormark has had enough of the snark. Doing that in the court of public opinion has it’s pitfalls though and when you’re the president of a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in over ten years in a market that’s hurting for fans. Verbally smacking around the guy responsible for giving your team fantastic coverage, perhaps more than it even deserves, is insulting though.
After all, if you don’t want to be the butt of jokes or the source of extreme sarcasm you need to do something to change that. Yesterday’s moves by the Panthers were the first, but painful, step in that process and if you can’t have fun with the whole thing it just gets depressing. Instead of getting your dander up about it, letting it fly and sticking to the message at hand that things are changing and they’ll get better under Dale Tallon is all the fans need to know. We know Michael Yormark is a smart guy, we’re just hoping next time he’s mad about the coverage he just takes it to e-mail instead.