Tallon Brings His Blueprint To Florida!

Say what you want, be a non-believer if you see fit. But know this. Dale Tallon has a plan, as Dave Hyde from the Sun-Sentinel reports. If I seem overly giddy about this, well yes I am. I have been praying for some sort of change at the top since Uncle Jack had the position. Nothing against Randy Sexton, but he was not the answer, and the Florida Panthers organEYEzation had to do something. And so something now!

Tallon is confident, believes in himself and has the experience that the Panthers need. If you didn’t get a chance to listen to today’s presser, here it is.

He will be the Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations (thank you Mr. Siegel), and the General manager of the Florida Panthers. He’s been given the go ahead and the budget to hire superior staff and scouts. Goodbye Scott Luce?

This is a new chapter in the life of this team and as owner Cliff Viner said, the Panthers ownership group is acting on their promise to bring a professional and well run organization to this town.

I know what you’re all thinking too. For most of last year I was so down on this team and so critical that all of a sudden I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and drink the kool-aid. Look, yes I was extremely critical of how things went last year and how they’ve gone up to this point. I had no problem sharing my opinion whether it was right or wrong with my readers. If you look at most of what I wrote last season, I was beggin for change. I was indicating game after game that we weren’t as good as people thought. I predicted last year that we’d finish 12th in the conference. We finished 14th. Does that make me an expert? No, not at all. So why am I different now?

Don’t mistake my positivity for nothing else other than excitement of a new regime. We need a starting point and this is it. I will still be the same ornery, critical, speak my mind fan and supporter of the Panthers. That isn’t changing just because a guy from my hometown comes in to fix things up.

He does however have the proof that he knows what he’s doing.

If he’s allowed to do his job, then guess what? Take a look at the Chicago Blackhawks. Like what you see? It could be a sense of things to come. It will take time and we need patience, but this time I think we will actually get to see a finished product.

Here’s more from the Sun-Sentinel’s Steve Gorten who broke the story on Monday.