If you\u2019re a Florida Panthers fan studying this final stretch of games, your fear in a season where everything went wrong is there\u2019s one final curse lurking.<\/p>\n
Everything might, you know, go right.<\/p>\n
They could win too many of these final, five games. The door prize to the Panthers\u2019 star-crossed season would be a top-10 draft pick. That\u2019s the kind of asset a two-time champion rarely gets. But the Panthers have to lose enough to qualify for that top-10 pick or the they lose it altogether to Chicago.<\/p>\n
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They might look safely out of trouble in the sixth draft spot right now. But they\u2019re only one point from ninth and two points from 10th. Besides, does anyone really want to tempt fate in a season where Aleksander Barkov was lost in the first practice and Eetu Luostarinen missed weeks after a grill mishap?<\/p>\n
Every Panthers fan who\u2019s cheered Stanley Cup parades the past two Junes is in the odd position of rooting for them to lose right now. That surely includes general manager Bill Zito, though there isn\u2019t enough truth serum for him to admit it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard enough to write: The Panthers need to tank. There. I did it. I\u2019ve written in recent years how tanking is immoral, unconstitutional and will accelerate a free world\u2019s descent into nihilism. But this is the asterisk to all that<\/p>\n
Although you should never enter a season to lose, once that season\u2019s sunk, it\u2019s OK to tank if the prize is big enough. A top-10 pick qualifies.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey\u2019d have a real opportunity in this draft,\u2019\u2019 said Craig Button, a draft analyst for the Canadian network TSN and former NHL general manager. \u201cYou want scoring centers? There\u2019s centers. You want defensemen that offer different elements for what they add and give team? There\u2019s a smorgasbord.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if they fall out of the top 10?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow unlucky would that be?\u201d Button said.<\/p>\n
It would crack the list of the top five unluckiest, living names:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Ronald Wayne. The forgotten, third founder of Apple. He brought in Steve Jobs. He then sold his 10% share of the company for $800. It\u2019s now worth $20 billion. Whoops.<\/p>\n
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\u2014 Pete Best. The Beatles drummer for three years, he was then replaced by Ringo Starr when the group was on the doorstep of fame.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Craig Bierko. He turned down the role of Chandler Bing on Friends. His friend, Matthew Perry, took the role. You\u2019ve heard of actors regretting roles they turned down, but they\u2019re famous. Did you ever hear of Craig Bierko?<\/p>\n
\u2014 The 1994 Montreal Expos. They held the best record in baseball when a strike canceled the season, leading to the dismantling of their roster and their moving to Washington.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Archie Manning. Good quarterback. Bad teams. His 35-104 record over 13 seasons is the worst among quarterback with 100 starts (his genes were pretty good, though).<\/p>\n
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Come to think of it, the Panthers should invite someone off the list to their final home game against the New York Rangers. Maybe some of their bad luck is just what this season needs to close out properly. Have a black cat run across the pregame ice, too. And have fans walk under ladders entering the arena.<\/p>\n
Think of it: Eight of the Panthers\u2019 top players will be over 30 by next season\u2019s start, too. So, a talented kid could help keep this run going.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have that group like the Panthers have, they can really help (a rookie) learn and grow,\u2019\u2019 Button said. \u201cYou\u2019re not having to thrust him into a big role. That\u2019s a good position for a young player.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the way anyone expected this season to go, the Panthers suffering so many injuries they couldn\u2019t make the playoffs. But these final, five games starting Tuesday night in Montreal aren\u2019t irrelevant. Three are on the road. Two are against similarly draft-conscious Toronto and the Rangers.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t even ask what could go wrong in a season where nothing\u2019s gone right.<\/p>\n
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