Tampa Mayor Tempts Fate, Suggests Lightning Should Lose Game 4 on Purpose

It's become abundantly clear that a full-strength Tampa Bay Lightning side is far superior to anything else the NHL has to offer, so there's little surprise the Stanley Cup Final has been a snoozefest thus far. The Bolts lead the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 and it appears to be a matter of when, not if for the franchise pull off the repeat. It would take an act of god for the Habs to come back. Or a local politician riding high on hubris.

Enter Tampa mayor Jane Castor, who actually said out loud that the local team should drop tonight's Game 4 on purpose so they could capture the cup at home.

“What we would like is for the Lightning to take it a little bit easy, to give the Canadiens just the smallest break, allow them to win one at home, and then bring it back to Amalie Arena for the final and the winning of the Stanley Cup,” mayor Jane Castor said Sunday. “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but (the Lightning) are playing some amazing hockey.”

The analytical side of my brain understands that her comments will have absolutely no impact on what happens the rest of the series. The sports fan side, though, wonders just how in the hell someone can tempt fate like that? To invite karma to come up from behind and manifest a four-game Canadiens' winning streak to shock the world and cause Castor to go down in infamy.

This is simply not done. The risk-reward for saying such a thing out loud is not worth it.

Now, like previously stated, Tampa Bay is a buzzsaw and they'd likely win a game they were trying to lose at this point. But let's say Montreal does force and win a Game 5. Lightning fans will not be loving the entire world jumping on the Habs bandwagon just to see a mayor eat an industrial-sized platter of crow.

No pressure.