from Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star,

Analyze this.

How does a team that racked up a best-ever 103-point season and the Atlantic Division title a year ago turn itself into a hot mess of a franchise verging on the bizarre and the bozo?

Eyes right: To owner Vincent Viola, the West Point graduate and 101st Airborne vet who shook the bejeezus out of the Panthers’ front office over the summer in what most observers view as a fatal enthrallment with advanced analytics, embraced by an upper management cadre of aye-aye-sir army-exes in possession of scant hockey smarts.

Viola, by the way, was recently selected by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump to serve as his Secretary of the Army. Which is either a mark of distinction or a further imputation.

In essence, these Panthers are the antithesis, the reverse-double-with-a-twist opposite of the Maple Leafs — no plan, no ballast, no clue, with a couple of glitterati players whose stars must surely start to dim soon, no disrespect intended to Jaromir Jagr and Roberto Luongo.

Just the sort of sad-sack opponent to widen Leaf eyes in anticipation of filling their bellies, first game after Xmas, caring nothing for the turmoil which has beset Florida.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Post ho-ho-ho.

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