Gerard Gallant knew he could coach in today’s NHL. And nothing was going to convince him otherwise.
Even that humiliating night on Nov. 27 in Raleigh, North Carolina, when he and assistant coach Mike Kelly were unceremoniously fired by the Florida Panthers after a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes and went to the airport in a taxi. The slapstick scenario became a video sensation in the hockey world and an indictment of how incompetent the Panthers appeared to be under their new hockey leadership.
“We had two key players injured, and we were struggling a bit at the time,” Gallant said.