The Florida Panthers are two games away from winning their first ever Stanley Cup as a franchise. It was not that long ago that Joel Quenneville had this Panthers team playing some pretty good hockey and playoff-bound. Some of these guys Quenneville coached a few years back when he quickly had to resign after seven games into the 2021-22 season. It was Quenneville’s past that caught up to him in Florida. The head coach that won three Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks had some issues of skeletons that fell out of his closet during his days in the Windy City. He was not the only one involved in the Kyle Beach sexual assault scandal. Quennville and the Blackhawks were a dynasty at the time and he was part of the cover up. Could Quennville have been the head coach with this Panthers team right now on thenverge of making team history? If he did not get caught covering up things. Let’s say if he did what was right back then, he could be about to hoist number 4 in his decorated coaching career.

Joel Quenneville’s first year as Panthers head coach was the 2019-20 season where Florida had a winning record of 35-36-8. The Panthers made the playoffs that year in that shortened season due to the pandemic as the team finished 4th in the Atlantic division. They lost to the Islanders in the qualifying round of the tournament in 4 games. The following year the Panthers finished 2nd in the Central division with a 37-14-5 record. They however lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the 2021-22 season, the Florida Panthers got out of the gates with a 7-0 record. Then suddenly the sky started falling and Quenneville was in the mix letting the sexual predator, Brad Aldrich, walk away from the Blackhawks franchise unscathed. This after what he did as employee of the Blackhawks to Kyle Beach and the other John Doe.

Joel Quenneville played in the NHL for 5 different teams over his career as a professional hockey player. He played most of his career with the Hartford Whalers which was seven seasons. He played 803 games in the NHL and scored 54 goals with 136 assists for total of 190 points. Quenneville will turn out to be a better coach than player. He landed his first NHL head coaching job with the St. Louis Blues. For the Blues, Quenneville got the Blues deep into the playoff in almost every season except the one he was fired from during the season. Quenneville would move on to Colorado then hit big in Chicago. In 25 seasons as head coach, Quennville has made the playoffs 20 times. He has a regular season record of 969-572-77 which is 2nd all-time in wins as a head coach. He only trails the great Scotty Bowman in wins all-time. Bowman has 1,244 of them. Quenville’s record in the playoffs is 121-104. With the Blackhawks, he went 76-52 in the playoffs.

On October 18, 2021 Joel Quenneville had no choice and had to resign as head coach for the Florida Panthers. The NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has still not reinstated Quenneville for the cover up. Like the Irish mother from the old country hiding the pregnant teenage daughter that is not married. Sweeping it under the rug worked, but eventually Quenneville and others’ hockey careers blew up when the shit hit the fan. The Panthers now have the guy who is 4th all-time in wins as a head coach in the NHL which is Paul Maurice. Maurice had the Panthers in the Stanley Cup finals last year only to lose to the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas won their first ever Stanley Cup and only has been around for a few years. This is the Panthers 3rd time in the Stanley Cup finals in their history as they lost one to the Avalanche back in 1996. The Panthers have made some savvy trades since Quenneville resigned from Florida. Imagine those trades would have occurred if he stayed there the entire time. That’s if he was innocent and not involved in the cover up. The Panthers had backlash from plenty of people around the country saying Quenneville should be fired. This was before he resigned. Some intriguing head coach openings this off-season and some teams were inquiring about the services of Joe Quennville. The NHL Commissioner has not backed down. We don’t know if Joel will ever get his chance to get 1,000 head coaching victories. He is 65 years old these days and age is catching up to him. Not sure any franchise would be 100 percent in on hiring Quenneville which could be a PR disaster waiting to happen. Some may say this is no big deal. You could say it is close to obstruction of justice. If you point local law enforcement in the wrong direction on purpose, you too can be sharing a cell with your pal you are protecting. Bettman and others in the NHL hope Quenneville will not come back at any point. They hope he quietly rides off into the sunset. Like Quenneville probably hoped Kyle Beach and the other guy would not come back to haunt him. Quenneville could have been even more special winning his 4th cup. Winning a cup with two different teams. Winning the first cup for a franchise. Perhaps he could have been closing in on Scotty Bowman’s NHL win total. The hockey gods may have had their say in the final chapter of the Quenneville story in the NHL.