Gerard Gallant won 96 of the 186 games he worked as head coach of the Florida Panthers. He lost only 65 in regulation time. That's good.

The 53-year-old was behind the bench of the most successful Panthers team in franchise history, which eclipsed 100 points last season, won the Atlantic Division, and made the playoffs. He was a 2016 Jack Adams Award finalist, finishing second, and signed through 2019.

But his record, contract, and accomplishments didn't matter to the folks running the show in Sunrise. As of Sunday night, Gallant's the former coach of the Panthers, fired and left outside PNC Arena in Raleigh to find his way home.

And if you're wondering why, you're not alone.

It's not you, it's me

There was discord between Gallant and management. The game's "insiders" are about the only ones not surprised at what transpired Sunday night.

The Panthers are owned by Vincent Viola, a billionaire West Point graduate who made his fortune on Wall Street. The club's president and CEO, Steve Caldwell, is 36 years old, served in the U.S. Army, has an MBA, and was a former vice-president at Goldman Sachs. He's the furthest from a hockey guy.

More men like Caldwell with military and business backgrounds have been brought in to work important management roles. As The Globe and Mail's James Mirtle wrote, "the team's fundamental ethos has become one of Wall Street."

And so far, it's working. The Panthers are winning. Attendance is up. Florida's spending more money (and losing more of it, but that's besides the point, for now).

The team's embraced analytics, something Viola knows a thing or two about from his time in the pits as a trader. The club's new analytics director was a math professor at West Point in his former life. General manager - and new interim head coach - Tom Rowe is a hockey lifer, but he's buying what the Panthers are selling. He took over for respected Stanley Cup winner Dale Tallon, who went from GM to president of hockey operations, in the spring.

Gallant was never management's guy. And while, according to Mirtle, Viola encourages disharmony, perhaps Gallant was a little too disharmonious. His firing is another sign the Panthers are moving all-in on their Wall Street and West Point approach to building a hockey team. You can disagree, but you must be on board - so it appears.

While the optics of Gallant's firing aren't the best - the cab fiasco, and no official release after the club landed in Chicago late Sunday night - the Panthers have earned the benefit of the doubt, at least in the short term.

No one wants to see anyone lose their job, but Gallant's going to be cashing Panthers cheques for a while, and, what do you know, there's a new NHL team in Las Vegas that needs a head coach. He'll be fine.

Change is good

Hockey's an old-school game. Teams talks about "culture change" all the time, but the Panthers are actually changing their culture, taking it even further than that, and that's encouraging. For hockey in Florida, for the NHL, and for hockey as a whole. The game's not going to change when the same lifers are recycled through each team. And for hockey to survive in South Florida, it may take a radical, outside-the-box approach - one the Panthers, as evidenced by their new-look front office, are clearly subscribing to.

When Florida plays Chicago on Tuesday, it will ice a very good hockey team. Through 21 games, the Panthers had the NHL's 10th-best possession numbers - up from last season. And they're missing Jonathan Huberdeau and Nick Bjugstad, Jussi Jokinen's only played 12 games, Jaromir Jagr has three goals on 51 shots, while Aleksander Barkov has two on 41.

And, hey, the whole thing may not work. The advanced numbers show the Panthers had luck on their side last season, as a team - Florida had the league's second-highest PDO - and individually:

The long game

It's easy to crucify the Panthers for letting a successful coach walk. But that's easy, that's taking the short view. Florida's thinking long term. It's got a plan. It needed a plan. That it's unorthodox is almost better, because the club's jumped way out in front of a movement that's slowly gaining traction throughout the league. And whether it works or not, the Panthers are going to be one of the more interesting teams to watch over the next few years. When was the last time you could say that?

We won't know whether Florida's decision to fire Gallant was the right one for a while. And in a 140-character world, nobody's got that kind of patience. But these Panthers, Viola's Panthers, the Wall Street and West Point Panthers, may turn out to be worth the wait. It's worth finding out, at the very least.

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Anthony Stolarz plays goal for the Philadelphia Flyers, but he represents the state of New Jersey. And the 22-year-old made home-state history Sunday.

Hailing fromEdison, Stolarz became the first New Jersey-born goalie to play in - and win - an NHL game. He made 29 saves in his successful debut.

The Flyers beat the Calgary Flames 5-3.

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The Florida Panthers sure know how to cut the cord.

The club fired head coach Gerard Gallant and assistant coach Mike Kelly on Sunday after a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, and the two weren't about to get a ride to the airport on the team bus.

Gallant and Kelly were spotted outside PNC arena awaiting a taxi:

The Panthers are taking heat from around the hockey world after the personnel change, and these photos won't help.

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Craig Anderson did what no other goalie's been able to do this season: shut out the New York Rangers.

Playing in back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday, the Ottawa Senators' tender recorded 33 saves in Manhattan in a 2-0 win, and stopped a remarkable 65 of 66 shots he faced over the weekend.

Anderson, who took a leave of absence after his wife was diagnosed with cancer in late October, went into Sunday's game with a stellar .932 save percentage - and it's going up. He's won four straight starts, allowing only five goals combined.

With everything on Anderson's plate, his play in November has been nothing short of inspiring. After the shutout over New York, he has a .943 save percentage in 11 starts this month.

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The reaction to the Florida Panthers firing head coach Gerard Gallant was quick and decidedly supportive.

Here's a sample of tweets from around the hockey world:

Some took the opportunity to question Florida's recent trend to a more analytics-based front office:

Having said all that, there could be some bright lights at the end of the tunnel for Gallant:

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A slow start has cost head coach Gerard Gallant his job.

The Florida Panthers fired Gallant after Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, reports Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos.

General manager Tom Rowe will take over behind the bench, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman. Assistant head coach Mike Kelly was also let go, according to TSN's Bob McKenzie.

The Panthers are 11-10-1 after Sunday's loss, and have struggled to score. Special teams have been an issue and injuries have taken their toll, as well, as Jonathan Huberdeau's yet to suit up this season, while Nick Bjugstad's played only two games.

Related: Twitter reacts to surprising Gallant firing

Aleksander Barkov has only two goals in 22 games, while Jaromir Jagr has only two. The club's leading scorer is Jonathan Marchessault.

The firing comes as a shocking move after Gallant led the Panthers to their best ever season in 2015-16, the club finishing with 103 points and atop the Atlantic Division. He was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, finishing second to Barry Trotz.

Related: Look: Gallant awaits cab after being fired

Florida lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Islanders in six games.

The Panthers are owned by billionaire West Point graduate Vinnie Viola, and have made numerous front-office changes over the past few months. The club has taken both a Wall Street-style and military-style approach to building a team, and Gallant's firing will no doubt feed into what many believe is a far too unorthodox method of management.

Gallant leaves Florida with an impressive 96-64-25 record in three seasons.

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Michael Leighton is back in the win column.

For the first time since Dec. 30, 2010 against the Los Angeles Kings, the veteran goalie recorded a regular-season NHL win.

The victory came Sunday in Leighton's first appearance this season since being recalled from the AHL by the Carolina Hurricanes.

The 35-year-old found himself in an early 2-0 hole to the Florida Panthers, but settled in and made 31 saves on 33 shots to secure two points for the Hurricanes.

Prior to Sunday, Leighton had played approximately 100 regular-season minutes since that last win over the Kings.

Leighton's most successful run in the NHL was with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2009-10, wherein he helped bring the club to within two wins of a Stanley Cup win.

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Jeff Skinner is playing with some kind of confidence.

During the second period of Sunday's game against the Florida Panthers, the Carolina Hurricanes winger took off down the ice after receiving a breakout pass from Victor Rask.

He then managed to fend off defenseman Aaron Ekblad, before dropping a deke and going backhand shelf on James Reimer.

The goal was Skinner's ninth in 20 games this season, and will be hard to top in terms of presentation.

(Video courtesy: NHL.com)

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21-0-4.

That's now the Arizona Coyotes' record in the past 25 against the Edmonton Oilers after a 2-1 road win on Sunday, extending a run of team-on-team dominance that knows no equal in today's NHL.

The Coyotes have picked up a least a point in every game played against the Oilers since Jan. 11, 2011. On that day, Edmonton won 4-3 in regulation, with Dustin Penner picking up the game-winning goal with 22 second remaining in the third period.

Connor McDavid turned 14 two days later, as a point of historical reference.

The Oilers haven't been a tough beat in recent years, although neither have the Coyotes since the team advanced to the Western Conference Finals in 2012.

This season, however, Edmonton sits first in the Pacific Division while the Coyotes have dropped to eighth, meaning this weekend's home-and-home series was a good chance to break the streak.

Despite amassing a 2-0 lead in Friday's game in Arizona, the Oilers fell 3-2 in a shootout before Sunday's regulation loss.

The next opportunity for the Oilers to break the streak will be Dec. 21 in Arizona.

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