The Florida Panthers are more or less a .500 team with Tom Rowe behind the bench (2-3-3) as they were when Gerard Gallant got fired (11-10-1), but the difference, now, is that they’re a lightning rod for analytics debates.
For those who want to pile on the Panthers – either for the way they fired Gallant, their seemingly nerdy approach or both – Tuesday was pretty sweet.
The Minnesota Wild won 5-1, collecting their fifth consecutive win as Devan Dubnyk made 29 out of 30 saves. By continuing this mediocre-at-best work, Rowe and the Panthers took some serious heat.
Here’s a small sample of the reactions:
Some of that is merely stating the facts (with a smile, maybe?) while others are a little closer to proclaiming that the sky is falling. But there’s no doubt that things were a little tense tonight.
Consider how Rowe was losing it on the bench:
While Roberto Luongo was in no mood for funny tweets:
Does any of this prove anything one way or another? Well, that might hinge on who you ask …