from Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel,

If I own the Panthers, I hand the keys back to Dale Tallon. I pray he convinces Gerard Gallant to return as coach. I close my eyes and pretend this year never happened.

The Panthers delivered their traditional parting gift to a lost season Thursday night by having players take off game jerseys and hand them to fans. The braintrust that oversaw the train wreck this season did that jersey tradition one better.

They were undressed completely. Everyone can see, in retrospect, how the front office crushed this season with self-inflicted mistakes.

A year ago, the Panthers were an ascending NHL franchise by any regular-season measure — wins, points, division title, talented young players, blue-ribbon organization and that conversational metric of closest South Florida team to a title.

Then the Panthers’ owners, Vinnie Viola and Doug Cifu, decided to “fix” their “problems.” Tallon, whose golden personnel decisions as GM built the team, was oddly kicked upstairs to the nebulous role of president of hockey operations. His roster was changed, his organization dismantled.

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