Putting it all together...

We see Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, their play on the ice. We watch as goaltender Antti Niemi deflects, redirects or covers the puck -- whatever it takes -- to protect his team's lead.

But who put all these talents together? Who did the deals, giving each what he needed to commit, and in hockey especially -- grow his developing skills?

Who brought Coach Joel Quenneville in as a scout, and subsequently promoted him to head coach to lead the championship charge?

This guy. Dale Tallon, who spent 33 years with the Blackhawks as a player, broadcaster and team executive before he "reportedly mismanaged qualifying offers to the Blackhawks' restricted free agents" and left their employment last summer.

Where is he now? In South Florida, sportswriter Greg Stoda tells us today, hired on as general manager and hoping to work his restructuring magic in a southern market, stocked with northern transplants no doubt eager to form the fan base of a winning team:

Now, it's Tallon who gives the Panthers their best reason in many, many years to dream big dreams.

He declared nobody on the Florida roster to be an untouchable, and said he has his own blueprint to follow - the Blackhawks - when it comes to restructuring the Panthers.

"I'm not afraid to steal from what works," Tallon said.

He hopes to establish a "puck possession, up-tempo" aggressive style of play, which Panthers head coach Peter DeBoer called "preaching to the choir" as his kind of game.

"That's how I want to play," DeBoer said. "You have to be open to shuffling the deck. It's the identity we want."

The Panthers have lacked an identity of any kind other than patsy for quite some time. Florida went 32-50 last season for 77 points to rank near the bottom of the NHL in what DeBoer called "a step backward." Tallon, though, professed to be as undaunted now as he was when he took charge of the Blackhawks when they, too, were among the league dregs.

"It didn't take long," Tallon said.

The Blackhawks, in fact, made steady annual progress in Tallon's charge, and then accumulated 112 points this season to establish themselves among the league's elite teams.

Tallon won't attend today's championship gala in Chicago - "I don't like parades," he said - but might make an exception in another area.

"I told them when I signed a lot of them that I don't drink, but I'd drink out of the Stanley Cup with them," Tallon said.