We were laying off of this early but it developed so rapidly – becoming a “story” of its own – that we had to mention it.
Late Monday night – following an action-packed, forward-thinking NHL Trade Deadline by his own club – Florida Panthers President/COO Michael Yormark lobbed a thinly-veiled Twitter bomb at the doorstep of George Richards, longtime Miami Herald pucks guru, host of On Frozen Pond, and all-around MSM best-friend to the South Florida hockey community.
A bit of background, via recent Yormark tweets:
At heat game now. Panthers game experience is so much better. More kids. More families. More excitement. More passion. More energy. 9:04 PM Feb 27th via OpenBea
At the gym. Going to carolina with the team tonight. Bringing some special guests with me from saveology.com. Should be a busy day.
Great moves by dale today. We have so much flexibility moving forward. He can finally bring in his kind of players. Its a new day here! about 9 hours ago via OpenBeak
Leaving with team to carolina now. Grt day for cats Sitting next to reid shapiro of saveology.com, who was just put on dales advisory board
(Nice touch placing a big-ticket sponsor on “Dale’s” – presumably Tallon, duh – advisory board. Feeling so much more secure about the hockey ops blueprint now that advertisers are involved in the decision-making process. G’night!)
You get the picture. Then came this daisy cutter:
love george richard’s tweets. He just doesn’t get it He probably spends too much time in the adt club and not enough time doing his homework about 2 hours ago via OpenBeak
For reference, the ADT Club is an all-inclusive ticket; food/beer/wine are part of the deal. As a credentialed member of the media, tickets to any area aren’t an issue. Of course, Richards provided the appropriate – and richly deserved – snark:
OnFrozenPond Bad weather headed to Raleigh…need to find one of those ADT Clubs I’ve heard so much about –
about one hour ago
Exactly what is being implied here by the president and chief operating officer of a National Hockey League franchise? A club with only two regular beat writers (there’s that annoying no-playoffs-in-ten-years thing!). A team which carries a diminished yet ferociously-dedicated fanbase into yet another “rebuild”, albeit one we can actually sign our names to with confidence. One step forward, two big leaps back.
Richards has forever gone the extra mile for Panthers fans in what’s been a limited market, providing video clips and real-time mailbags and a dozen other selfless offerings which a lesser journalist would never expend energy on.
If this is a personal rift between the two then it should be handled as such; not on a social media network. Helluva price to pay for whichever party winds up in the “wrong”, at least publicly.
GR has taken the very highest of roads in responding to this mess, but man…what a tale he could tell. Yormark’s meetings with members of the local media are underground legend down these here parts.
Can’t imagine Tallon, Bill Torrey, or managing partner Cliff Viner are too thrilled after a tremendously positive day. Or perhaps they are; their rep just spoke for the entire organization.
UPDATE, 3/1: Richards, Yormark, and Randy Moller have all confirmed this is much ado about nothing. Passing it along.
