from Dave Hyde of the Sun-Sentinel,

Their head coach once was locked out of team practices by the general manager. Their owner once tried to use the No. 1 draft pick on an underage player by claiming he was eligible if you factored in leap years.

They let fans in free to games one year by showing a Florida driver’s license. Another year, they set a stack of free tickets for each home game at a sub shop by the arena. They then stopped such giveaways, but draped off empty sections of the upper deck for games.

To fully appreciate the Florida Panthers’ path to the Stanley Cup Final starting in Las Vegas on Saturday, understand the comic falls and you-can’t-make-this-up moments they’ve taken fans over the previous quarter century.

The Panthers didn’t just lose liberally. They didn’t just go a quarter-century between winning playoff series. They didn’t just go 12 years without making the playoffs and play in a way a team official privately joked their best year in that stretch was a season canceled due to a labor lockout.

They did it all in a way that almost put the fun in dysfunction.

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