Losing Quenneville 'extremely difficult', but Panthers remain a force
When Joel Quenneville resigned as head coach of the Florida Panthers in late October it had the potential to derail an immensely talented team with dreams of winning a Stanley Cup.
"It was extremely difficult," interim coach Andrew Brunette said before Florida played the Blackhawks at the United Center on Sunday.
Quenneville walked away shortly after details of the Kyle Beach sexual abuse scandal were released by the law firm Jenner & Block.
"I want to express my sorrow for the pain this young man, Kyle Beach, has suffered. My former team, the Blackhawks, failed Kyle and I own my share of that," Quenneville said in a statement to TSN.
The next couple of weeks were difficult as Florida lost five of eight (three in OT or a shootout), but things stabilized and the Panthers (35-10-5) currently own the top points percentage in the Eastern Conference.
Brunette, who played the final season of his 16-year career with the Hawks in 2010-11, credits a leadership core that includes Joe Thornton, Aleksander Barkov, Patric Hornqvist and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
"If you lose a coach of Joel's stature (it's) always tough," Brunette said. "What he's done for the last couple years, how he's built the culture of this team and gotten us in this position (was impressive). ... But we managed to get through it together. Being a rookie coach, having the leadership group that we have ... it really helped the transition and made it pretty smooth."
Brunette has heard from Quenneville, but wouldn't go into any details.
"What we say kind of stays between me and him," Brunette said. "He's been supportive and I know he really misses the game."
Ones that got away:
Florida's Gustav Forsling and Lucas Carlsson were once thought to be up-and-coming defensemen in the Blackhawks' organization. Instead, they're part of a Panthers squad that may earn the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Forsling has 2 goals and 20 assists and is averaging 21 minutes, 18 seconds of ice time - third highest on the team. Carlsson is playing a much lesser role, but has played in 28 games and turned in one of the highlights of the season when he denied Jesperi Kotkaniemi on February 16 with an incredible stick save as the puck was 2-3 feet from sailing into the net.
The Hawks traded Forsling to Carolina for Calvin de Haan in June 2019. They sent Carlsson to Florida for Brett Connolly, Riley Stillman and the rights to Henrik Borgstrom.
"With Fors, (we) picked him up on up on waivers and there was a lot of familiarity with him," Brunette said. "The coaching staff knew him, had him in Chicago. He fit like a glove. ... "He's been, in my mind, one of the most underrated defensemen in the league."
Slap shots:
The Hawks assigned forward Brett Connolly to Rockford on Saturday. ... Dallas forward Jamie Benn was fined the maximum $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct during the Stars' win over the Hawks on Friday. Benn squirted water from the bench at MacKenzie Entwistle.