Tallon the architect behind Panthers’ turnaround
Florida advances to playoffs for just the fifth time since joining NHL in 1993-94
Dale Tallon is not dressed for the fresh dump of snow in Toronto. The 65-year-old Florida Panthers general manager is wearing loafers with no socks.
But he is not leaving the hotel for the pre-game skate. He’s awaiting the Panthers’ owners, who are flying up for a dinner celebration after the team clinched a playoff spot by virtue of a Blackhawks victory Sunday.
It is Florida’s fifth post-season appearance in franchise history and its first since 2011-12.
The players found out the news just as their plane from Montreal touched down Sunday. Yet there was no loud roar. These Panthers are trying to act like they’ve been there before.
After Monday’s pre-game skate, veteran defenceman Brian Campbell explained that this team is so young that they’re oblivious to pressure.
“(The Blackhawks) were really naive and didn’t know what they were doing,” said Campbell, who came to Florida from Chicago five years ago. “Hopefully, that’s what we have here. A lot of young guys who don’t have panic in their game.”
Their GM knows a little bit about pressure. The No. 2 pick in the 1970 draft, he is also a former Canadian junior golf champion and golf pro who learned to keep his mind on the next shot, no matter what. He talks about “embracing the process.”
Tallon seems to embrace every- thing about his job. He is a player’s GM who gets upset if he walks into a room and it goes quiet. “If they have something to say about me, I want them to tell me to my face,” he says.
At the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Tallon has a big office overlooking the Everglades. But it’s on the other side of the rink, away from the players.
So he put a desk and TV in the storage/laundry room area where the team keeps the underwear and socks so he could be more involved. It’s where Jaromir Jagr does his stretching.
After a victory, Tallon is in the dressing room fist-pumping with the team. “I’m a touchy-feely guy,” he admits.
The players love Tallon in return. When he was in Chicago in 2008, the Blackhawks went to his father Stanley’s wake in Gravenhurst, Ont., the day after playing the Leafs in Toronto.
“All of a sudden, these buses show up,” Tallon said. “When my mother saw Patrick Kane, she was beside herself. It took all the stress away for that time. That was so special. We had a good cry.”
Tallon has a special place in his heart for Kane, whom he drafted first overall in 2007. He remembers watching the NHL’s leading scorer as an undersized junior getting run over in a playoff game against Plymouth. Kane, then with London, got right back up and finished the game with two goals and two assists.
“He got hammered so hard right in front of me, I thought he was dead,” Tallon said. “I said to (assistant GM) Rick Dudley, this kid’s our guy. We didn’t tell anybody until draft day.”
Tallon’s blueprint is loading up on draft picks, screening players for key character traits and mixing in veterans. The Panthers are showing the value of not only picking high, but picking smart. They have 11 draft picks on their roster. The Leafs, by comparison, have six.
But Tallon thinks Toronto has turned the corner.
“They’ve got some good young players,” Tallon said. “But you’ve got to be patient. And it’s hard to be patient in this market. You’ve got to be very bad before you can be very good.”