DETROIT — It felt almost like parody when Andrew Brunette was asked who would start in goal for the Panthers on Friday night.

Sitting in a room off the loading dock of Little Caesars Arena in the afternoon, ahead of the Panthers’ game against the Red Wings, those sorts of questions — who’s in, who’s out for a team that currently holds the best record in hockey — were a level below secondary.

Brunette, the interim head coach for the Panthers after Joel Quenneville’s resignation Thursday, has the unenviable job of dealing with an earthquake’s aftershock.

“You know, it’s been a whirlwind for obviously everybody involved,” Brunette said. “It’s been a real sad day for everyone in hockey. Kyle Beach, everything he’s gone through, we really feel for him.”

Quenneville was coach of the Blackhawks in 2010, when Beach alleges he was sexually abused while the team brass ignored the situation. He resigned after coaching the Panthers to a win on Wednesday night, bringing their record to 7-0-0 on the season.

Beach, as part of an interview on TSN in which he revealed his identity as video coordinator Brad Aldrich’s alleged sexual-abuse victim, said, “There is absolutely no way [Quenneville] can deny knowing it.” Beach said meetings were held in Quenneville’s office in the aftermath of the incident.

Brunette, who now takes the reins, played in the NHL for 16 years, the last of those under Quenneville for the 2011-12 Blackhawks. Before getting hired by Florida in 2019, Brunette worked as an assistant coach and assistant general manager for the Wild.

Now, he’s in limbo — “just day to day,” he said of his job status — for as long as it takes the Panthers to sift through the wreckage.

On Friday morning, he was asked how he’s handling the events of this week. Brunette got opportunities because of Quenneville.

“To be honest with you, I said it earlier, I’m just trying to process,” Brunette said. “It’s been a whirlwind and I wish I could give you a better answer. It’s been — I can’t even explain to you. Again, I understand the bigger issue here right now is Kyle. We don’t need this in hockey anymore and that’s the bigger issue.”

That also was the approach from Panthers stars Aaron Ekblad and Jonathan Huberdeau: Keep the focus on Beach, the victim in all of this. Keep hockey, and their personal relationship to Quenneville, in the backseat.

Huberdeau said Quenneville didn’t say anything to the team about the situation before leaving.

“It was almost like he took care of it,” Huberdeau said.

Ekblad first watched Beach’s interview after the Bruins game, without prior knowledge of the circumstances.

“It’s just a situation I couldn’t imagine,” Ekblad said. “Being in that situation, having to deal with that and the emotions that follow. I wish the best for him and his recovery. … You’d like to think that nothing like that could happen to you and your team.”

Conspicuously absent from the press conferences were phrases like “focus on hockey.” The Panthers had a game Friday night. They wanted to stay undefeated, and paid lip service when asked about it. It didn’t seem as if that’s where their focus was.

All things considered, that seems appropriate.

“We’re all humans here,” Ekblad said. “There’s things more important than hockey.”

That’s a lesson their former coach likely never learned. And one the sport must learn.