I wouldn’t know Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola if I passed him on the street.
The Brooklyn product has an impressive resume in the financial services industry and in electronic trading according to the Panthers website. His bio gives me every reason to believe he is a very intelligent man.
So how could the team he owns handle something as simple as a coach’s firing so poorly?
After a Sunday night loss in Carolina, head coach Gerard Gallant was told to take his things off the bus and was forced to catch a cab in Raleigh in front of photographers.
The team could have waited until the next day, or made this decision prior to the start of a five-game road trip, but instead fired Gallant immediately after a road game. The images reminded me of the way Harold Ballard of the Leafs handled things 35 years ago.
General manager Tom Rowe likely had a hand in making the decision to fire Gallant, but the optics reflect poorly on every aspect of Vincent Viola’s team.