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CHICAGO -- New Florida coach Tom Rowe met with captain Derek MacKenzie and the rest of the Panthers leadership on Monday. He talked to the whole team on Tuesday.Rowe knows Gerald Gallant is well-liked in Floridas locker room, and he wanted to be as transparent as possible on why the coach was let go just 22 games into the season.I came in and I told them, I said `Listen, were not going to change a whole lot. We need to tweak a few things, Rowe said. But if I came in here and wasnt sensitive to that, it just wouldnt work. I love our room. I love our leadership group, and weve got the right guys to help us get going.The good news for Rowe is the Panthers dont have to travel very far. They were on the fringe of the Eastern Conference playoff race heading into their first game since Gallant was fired.We all feel very responsible for whats going on, MacKenzie said before Tuesdays matchup with Chicago. Quite frankly, our performance to this point hasnt been good enough. Unfortunately, you know, Gerard was the end result of that.The message has been sent and we need to be better and we will be, starting tonight.Gallant was believed to be the right guy for Florida after he coached the Panthers to a franchise-record 103 points and the Atlantic Division title last season. He got a contract extension last January that runs through the 2018-19 season, and then-general manager Dale Tallon called him an ideal fit for our group.Not so much anymore. At least from the perspective of Floridas front office.The Panthers dropped to 11-10-1 when they blew a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 loss at Carolina on Sunday night, and that was it for Gallant. The players were informed of Gallants dismissal and the coachs luggage was taken off the team bus headed to the airport in Raleigh, North Carolina. Assistant coach Mike Kelly also was fired.They were pretty blunt, center Vincent Trocheck said. Made a coaching change, that was it.Gallant, who played parts of 11 seasons in the NHL, mostly with the Detroit Red Wings, then departed the arena in a taxi, drawing criticism from some of the teams fans.It was bad the way it all happened, unfortunately, said Rowe, who was promoted to general manager in May in a front-office shake-up that elevated Tallon to president of hockey operations. It didnt look good, but Ill tell you right now, we respect him and like him and Gerard and I had a good relationship.The Panthers ownership and other team officials rely heavily on advanced statistics, and Gallant was not the biggest fan of analytics. But Rowe, who returns to the bench on an interim basis, made it sound as if he was only planning small changes, beginning with Floridas defensive zone coverage.Really big believer in the D-zone being more area than man on man, he said.Rowe coached Floridas AHL affiliates in Portland and San Antonio before moving into the Panthers front office. He also served as an assistant with the Hurricanes from 2008-11.Hes hard-nosed, old-school kind of guy, said Trocheck, who played for Rowe in the minors. He gets the most of his players by getting them to work hard, make sure everybodys playing the right way.But Trocheck, who liked a handful of pro-Gallant messages on Twitter after his dismissal, said he didnt think coaching was the reason for Floridas disappointing start.Its just a matter of us kind of pulling it together, he said. Got to come together as a group and realize that we havent been playing our best hockey and we have a lot more to go.---Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenapAnaheim Ducks Jerseys . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. Ryan Miller Ducks Jersey . -- Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Alrdridge were again the go-to duo for the Trail Blazers against the Kings. http://www.authenticduckspro.com/Carter-rowney-ducks-jersey/ . The news was first reported on Gonzalezs Twitter account and confirmed by the Rockies. Gonzalez has a six-week window before position players have their first workout at spring training in Arizona. Paul Kariya Ducks Jersey .Y. - Jerome Samson scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the St. Jakob Silfverberg Ducks Jersey . JOHNS, N.The Lords Test was one of those matches that makes you feel slightly sorry for those uninitiated into, or unpersuaded by, the wonders of cricket. For example: all those ancient Romans, Incas and suchlike born tragically in the wrong place and at the wrong time; the elephants, sharks and stick insects cursed by being created as non-cricket-watching species; most Americans; my brother; N Srinivasan; and certifiable buffoons.They missed a sinuous drama of ever-cranking tension, burst in the end by a thunderously stump-clattering denouement, and scenes of glorious, infectious Pakistan delight. As all great cricket matches are, it was speckled with individual and collective brilliance and bloopers. Unlike most great cricket matches, it also featured a 42-year-old scoring a century, a legspinner taking ten wickets at Lords, a player taking 11 wickets and batting for almost five hours before being out, but still finishing on the losing side, and Nigel Farage, UKIPs quitmeister general, being roundly booed whenever he walked up the steps at the side of the Mound Stand on Friday. In every respect it was a magnificent, unforgettable occasion.It was the fourth great Test match that Lords has hosted in the past four years, after similarly captivating contests last year against New Zealand, in 2014 against India, and two years prior to that against South Africa. The latter two were similar to this years game. All featured tightly contested first innings with scores around 300 (339-272 this year; 295-319 in 2014; 309-315 in 2012). Bowlers held the balance of power, but batsmen were able to score. South Africas second-innings 351 was the highest innings in these three matches, Englands 207 on Sunday the lowest.The almost identical run rates - 3.05 in 2012; 3.03 in 2014; 3.09 in 2016 - have been unspectacular by modern standards, and only four sixes have been hit in a total of 1138 overs - three in 2012, one in 2014, none in this years Test. In fact, excluding the 88-over Bangladesh v South Africa Test in Dhaka last summer (reduced to one days play by a prolonged splattering of entirely scheduled seasonal rain), this was the first six-less Test anywhere since England and West Indies failed to clear the ropes at Lords in May 2012.Nevertheless, each game has utterly gripped the minds and souls of those who have watched them; each has made you want to dig up the Romans and the Incas, shake them by the scruff of whatever is left of their necks, and shout: Dont you realise what you are missing? Or dive into a shark tank and gloat about how much better a good Test match is than swimming around in an ocean trying to find your next helping of seal carpaccio. England, after recovering from three bad fourth-innings starts to force their way back into contention three times, have lost all three. How we have sacrificed ourselves for the greater good of the Test game.Looking ahead to what should hopefully be a better series than the one-sided clouting that followed Indias illusory win in 2014, there are weaknesses for England to exploit, straws at which to clutch - an unconvincing opening pair, a weak tail (Pakistans last three wickets added just 36 runs in the match, the joint third-lowest by a winning side that has batted two complete innings in a Test this millennium), and a less-than-Olympian fielding unit. Not that Pakistan needed an Olympian fielding unit. They took only seven catches in the match. There now follows a List of the Six Teams Who Have Beaten England Whilst Taking No More Than Seven Catches in Test Matches Since 1990.1. Pakistan 2. Pakistan 3. Pakistan 4. Pakistan 5. Pakistan 6. PakistanTruly, Pakistan cricket is a unique phenomenon. (Pakistan also beat England in Sharjah last winter with seven catches, in Abu Dhabi in 2011-12 with six, at Lords in 1996 with seven, and at Lords and The Oval in 1992 with six and seven respectively.)Another potential vulnerability is that they have no back--up bowling in the current XI.dddddddddddd This was only the third time in the last ten years that a team has beaten England using only four bowlers; Australia did so in Leeds in 2009 and Perth in 2010-11. (England themselves beat Pakistan at Lords in 2010 using only four bowlers, a fact largely overlooked in most histories of that Test match.) If England can neutralise Yasir Shah, none of the remaining seamers, though they were impressive collectively at Lords, has a recent record of major Test wicket-taking.However, that if is one of ample, almost Inzamamic proportions. And those seamers looked like they are quite likely to embark on some major Test wicket-taking quite soon.There was some talk before Sundays play of how England would have to be ruthless with any loose ball bowled by Yasir. This plan they executed impressively. The only problem was that there were only about six loose balls in his 31 overs of probe (England managed three fours in his last 25 overs). Yasir is a magnificent cricketing jewel. He does not seem to have the whirling mystery and intermittent mercurial unplayability of Abdul Qadir or Mushtaq Ahmed. He just bowls good balls almost all the time, and very good balls quite often. Cricketing history suggests this is a Good Plan. Especially against a team with a historic vulnerability to (a) good legspin, and (b) very good legspin.Grand statistical conclusions are risky this early in his career, but his numbers are eye-popping. He is on course to break George Lohmanns 120-year-old record for fewest matches required to reach 100 Test wickets. He has been the leading wicket-taker in five of Pakistans last six Test victories, and joint-leading wicket-taker in the other (he and Shoaib Malik both took seven against England in Sharjah). He has taken seven or more wickets in a staggering nine of his 13 matches. By way of a few comparisons (and bearing in mind that Yasir is unlikely to maintain quite such a staggering success rate), Murali took seven or more in 59 of 133 Tests, a statistical miracle; Warne 42 in 145 (ditto); Abdul Qadir 13 in 67; Mushtaq Ahmed 9 in 52; Danish Kaneria 9 in 61; Stuart MacGill 13 in 44.As a bonus stat, on Sunday, Yasir became the first bowler ever to hit the stumps of Englands Nos. 5, 6 and 7 in the same Test innings. And this was the first Test in which England have lost eight batsmen bowled out since the drawn match in Port Elizabeth in 1999-2000 (when seven were castled by the South African pacers in the first innings alone).The relentlessness of Yasirs excellence was one of the principal factors in another recurring English problem - a failure to convert. In this match they struggled to convert 20s into fifties. Englands batsmen had nine scores of 20 or more, but only Alastair Cooks drop-assisted 81 breached the half-century mark. In Tests in which they have posted at least six scores of 20 or more, this represents their worst conversion of 20s to fifties since the 2005 New Years Test in Cape Town, when all 11 English 20s went un-half-centuried. This highlights the unceasing pressure applied by Pakistans bowlers. Pakistan, for their part, only converted two of their 11 scores of 20-plus into half-centuries. Highlighting the almost unceasing pressure applied by Englands bowlers.More on Englands ropey conversion stats later in the week. And their relative weakness against left-arm seamers. James Andersons return should prove influential. Whether it proves decisive will depend on Englands ability to stop getting out, having got themselves in. A task that will be made significantly easier if Pakistan drop Yasir, start bowling right-handed a bit more, and read cover to cover MS Dhonis little-read coaching and captaincy tome, How to Follow Up a Nerve-Jangling, Brilliant Lords Victory as Uselessly As Possible. ' ' '