The Florida Panthers, unbeaten and off to the best start in franchise history, will take the ice Friday against the Detroit Red Wings with complicated feelings.
The Panthers won their seventh straight game Wednesday with Joel Quenneville on the bench, mere hours after former Chicago Blackhawk Kyle Beach claimed “there’s no way” Quenneville wouldn’t have known about his 2010 sexual assault allegation against a then-Blackhawks video coach. They flew to Michigan on Thursday without Quenneville, who went to New York to met with Commissioner Gary Bettman to discuss his role in Chicago’s mishandling of Beach’s allegation. By the end of the day, Quenneville had resigned with assistant coach Andrew Brunette taking over on an interim basis.
“It’s been a crazy few days,” said star defenseman Aaron Ekblad, visibly sorting through some complicated feelings about the whole situation.
Florida, of course, had come to love Quenneville, who guided the Panthers to the best regular season in franchise history and had them looking like a possible Stanley Cup favorite in the first two weeks of this season. The recent revelations, and particularly the extensive interview Beach gave to The Sports Network’s SportsCentre, had Ekblad unsure about how he now feels about the coach’s increasingly complicated legacy.
“I’m not sure of my feelings right now,” Ekblad said. “I’m just trying to gather them, and take care of what I have to take care of mentally to learn and grow from this situation, but I’m just not sure about my feelings.”
Brunette, 48, will lead Florida for the first time Friday when it faces the Red Wings at 7 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The interim coach will face the pressure of managing the best team in the NHL, while also managing a “distraught” locker room, as Ekblad put it.
“We’re going through this as a team,” winger Jonathan Huberdeau said, “and [Brunette] is going to be there to help us.”
Brunette has been on the Panthers’ coaching staff since the 2019-2020 season, Quenneville’s first in South Florida. Prior to that, he spent seven seasons working with the Minnesota Wild in various capacities, including assistant coach, assistant general manager, director of player personnel and special assistant to the general manager.
As a player, he appeared in 1,109 NHL games over 16 seasons for the Wild, Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators, Atlanta Thrashers, Colorado Avalanche and Blackhawks. He played under Quenneville for three years, including his lone with the Blackhawks in 2011-2012. Brunette and Beach were training camp teammates that year.
“I’m just trying to process. It’s been a whirlwind,” Brunette said after coaching the Panthers in their morning skate Friday. “I wish I could give a better answer. I can’t explain. Again, I understand the bigger issue here right now is Kyle. We don’t need this in hockey or anywhere.”
Brunette said his role as interim coach is “day to day” and he hasn’t gotten assurances about whether he’ll have the job for the remainder of the season.
“We’re just trying to keep things the same,” Ekblad said. “Obviously we’ve won seven straight. We want to make it eight, so doing something different now would not make sense.”
Quenneville’s resignation Thursday came hours after his meeting with Bettman, which was also attended by general manager Bill Zito and president Matthew Caldwell. Quenneville previously denied knowledge of the allegation, which took place during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, but a report published Tuesday by Chicago law firm Jenner & Block, as well as assertions made by Beach in his TSN interview Wednesday, contradicted the coach.
“It should go without saying that the conduct described in that report is troubling and inexcusable,” Caldwell said in a statement Thursday. “It stands in direct contrast to our values as an organization and what the Florida Panthers stand for. No one should ever have to endure what Kyle Beach experienced during, and long after, his time in Chicago. Quite simply, he was failed. We praise his bravery and courage in coming forward.”
Said Ekblad: “We’re all humans here. There’s things more important than hockey. In this situation, there’s things more important than hockey.”
