Cote: With a wary eye on Milton, we rank Miami’s Big 6 teams on exhilaration to angst scale | Opinion
October is the grand intersection of all our major sports as football digs in, baseball and soccer near their crescendo, and basketball and hockey get going. In South Florida, this nexus finds our biggest teams and their fans in a state ranging from exhilaration to angst — with a hurricane moving in to complicate this intriguing time in a most tropical way.
The reigning NHL Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers, citing “an abundance of caution,” canceled Monday evening’s Champions Ring Ceremony scheduled for the Sunrise arena as Hurricane Milton has put several Florida counties under a state of emergency including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
More notably, the team’s Tuesday night season opener vs. Boston is in some doubt due to the approaching storm gathering steam in the Gulf of Mexico..
Said club president Matt Caldwell: “As of now, opening night is scheduled to proceed as intended” — as of now meaning a fluid situation that should have fans awaiting a final decision Tuesday. Most projections seem to have Milton tracking north of us, but that can change, and you don’t mess with maybes when it comes to hurricanes.
South Florida’s severest weather affecting local sports is not new; this is real life putting the fun ‘n games in their place.
The Miami Dolphins’ 2017 season opener at home vs. Tampa Bay was postponed 10 weeks to the team’s bye week due to the threat of Hurricane Irma, which ended up mostly sparing South Florida. The NFL made the decision in concert with the Dolphins, who had moved their preparations to Southern California the week of the opener.
The devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 left a lasting imprint on South Florida, and reminders why abundant caution is wise are too many. Even now, as we track Milton, the Southeast, especially the Carolinas, deal with the ravages of Hurricane Helene, which killed some 240 people and caused nearly $40 billion in damages.
With the latest hurricane threat the backdrop, let us use this October intersection for a state-of report on South Florida’s Big 6teams. We rank each on that exhilaration to angst scale after a big weekend that saw the Dolphins, football Canes and futbol Inter Miami all win:
▪ 1. Florida Panthers: The exhilaration does not get higher than the view from the top of the world — winning and now preparing to defend your first NHL championship. Cats lost a handful of notable players led by Brandon Montour, but return the nucleus led by Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Sergei Bobrovsky.
But is Cup fatigue a real thing? Isn’t Reinhart due a sharp offensive decline? Does Bobrovsky at 36 have another great season in him? Fair questions, all. But Florida opens tied with Dallas as the second betting favorite to win, trailing only ... Edmonton, the team the Panthers beat for the Cup.
▪ 2. Inter Miami: The sublime Lionel Messi has lived up to expectations (when healthy), and that has the Herons the betting fave to win the club’s first MLS Cup championship trophy when the playoffs commence Oct. 25. Miami by winning its final regular-season game would set a league record for most standings points (best record) ever.
Luis Suarez leads Mam with 20 goals, but Messi’s 15 have come in only 18 matches as he has missed games due to an ankle injury and rest management. But if he’s healthy, Miami is the best team, period. And, not unlike Caitlin Clark in the WNBA, Messi has lifted not only his team but the league and the sport in America.
▪ 3. Miami Hurricanes: The football Canes moved to 6-0 and No. 6 in the polls with Saturday night’s insane 39-38 win at Cal after trailing by 25 points — and 20 in the fourth quarter. And quarterback Cam Ward in engineering the rally lifted himself for now to Heisman Trophy favorite. But, can it last?
Needing a miracle to beat Cal and needing a last-second overturned touchdown to survive Virginia Tech the week before gives us pause. Can UM play with Ohio State, Texas and those other big boys in the College Football Playoff and make a run at the long-elusive sixth national title? For now, a less-than-ferocious schedule and the stunning fall of Florida State puts the Atlantic Coast Conference crown vitally in play.
▪ 4. Miami Heat: This is the one team of the Big 6 stuck somewhere between exhilaration and angst, always competitive enough to avoid the latter, but not presently good enough to inspire the former. Miami is mid-pack in the NBA and in the East on betting odds, seen as a lower-seed playoff team with negligible title hopes.
Will Erik Spoelstra’s coaching, the Jimmy Butler/Bam Adebayo nucleus and the ascension of guys such as Jaime Jacquez Jr. be enough in a loaded East led by reigning champion Boston? The feeling here is Miami needed to sign a marquee player to keep up but instead had a quiet, run-it-back offseason.
▪ 5. Miami Dolphins: The Fins just scratched and clawed to beat a bad New England team 15-10 to improve to 2-3. Because the Dolphins are playing a third-string quarterback. Because the injuries are mounting, last season’s high-scoring offense has disappeared and the playoffs seem an uphill hike.
After a bye this week QB Tua Tagovailoa must miss only one more game before he is eligible to return. But will he be ready and can he stay healthy? Might his next concussion end his career? This is not an overly gloomy maybe but a real concern for the club and for Dolfans in what has been an unexpectedly tumultuous season.
▪ 6. Miami Marlins: Let’s not waste too much space or time on the one major team in South Florida that cannot be bothered to field a competitive team and is undeserving of fan support until it does.
The latest cost-cutting fire sale saw the trading away this season of batting champion Luis Arraez, popular star Jazz Chisholm Jr. and others, leaving behind a roster of journeymen veterans and minor-leaguers that lost 100 games. As Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers and Aaron Judge’s Yankees play at the top of the sport to reach the World Series, the Marlins are a disgrace by comparison with an owner unable or unwilling to spend.
To segue in conclusion from a sports calamity to a meteorological one, Marlins to Milton: Kindly leave us alone and head elsewhere, Hurricane Milton. Better yet, turn weak in the Gulf and quietly disappear.
