Note 12/1: The Panthers organization didn’t leave Gallant out in the cold. According to an article at Sportsnet, Florida called a car service but Gallant “did not want to wait” and grabbed a taxi of his own.
Original story:
The news that the Florida Panthers had fired head coach Gerard Gallant seemed pretty sudden.
And if you felt that way, imagine what Gallant felt considering the team straight up left him in Raleigh, N.C., searching for a cab.
CTV described the bizarre scene after the game:
Gallant spoke after the game as always, talking about how five poor second-period minutes out of 60 was the team's undoing against the Hurricanes, a game where Florida wasted an early 2-0 lead. Shortly after that is when he apparently was told of the dismissal, and Gallant then waited for a taxi after his luggage was unloaded from the buses that were to carry the Panthers to the airport.
Gerard Gallant and Assistant Coach Mike Kelly fired by @FlaPanthers tonight. Waiting for cab. Photo courtesy AP pic.twitter.com/RIpd3elnyU
— SiriusXM NHL Network (@SiriusXMNHL) November 28, 2016
At least a Hurricanes employee was nice enough to help Gerard Gallant with his bags as he got into a taxi after being fired. (AP Photo) pic.twitter.com/04SVf0PiIb
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) November 28, 2016
Our Hurricanes blog was also on the scene and caught up to Gallant before he departed:
Chip Alexander of the N&O, Andrew Schnittker of the Technician and I shrugged our shoulders and started down to the other end of the arena. Cory and AP reporter Mike Potter followed in short order. Kurt, who had beaten us to the back door by about 30 seconds, went outside over the objections of the security guard and approached Gallant and former assistant Mike Kelly.
It didn’t take long for Gallant to confirm the news. After getting confirmation, Kurt offered his condolences to Gallant, and said “I thought you did a good job.”
Gallant’s response? “I thought so too.”
Gallant went 96-65-25 with the Panthers in three seasons and won the Jack Adams Award for coach of the year last summer. He becomes the fifth of the last seven Jack Adams winners to get fired within three years of accepting the award, but the first left waiting for a cab in a different state post-firing.