If I told you in July that, at the quarter mark of the season, we would be looking at a division leading Florida Panthers squad, you would probably laugh me out of the room. But that’s exactly what we have.
And should we really be surprised? In 2005-06, Dale Tallon took over as the General Manager of the Chicago Blackhawks, a team toiling on the verge of obscurity. In 2009-10, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. He wasn’t on the ice, he wasn’t in the press box, he wasn’t even in the arena. No, the architect of the Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks — their first such victory since 1961 and the days of Mikita and Hull — was watching from his new post in South Florida. Dale Tallon was the new General Manager of the Florida Panthers.