Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Fire-on-ice Panthers, Messi sitting?, NFL amputations & more in new HB10

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (MARCH 10): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 had been blog-only but when our blog retired it moved, re-imagined, to online-only. HB10 means what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 51st edition of your Sunday sports-potpourri notes column, the new HB10:

1. PANTHERS: Cats feather Stanley Cup hopes by adding Tarasenko: Florida, with an NHL-best 44-17-4 record and on a scorching 13-2 run after Saturday’s 5-1 home rout of Calgary, got even better at the trade deadline by adding right wing Vladimir Tarasenko, a four-time NHL all-star who scored twice Saturday. Panthers GM Bill Zito got him from Ottawa in a steal, giving up only a conditional 4th-round draft pick and a 6th-rounder, with the Sens still assuming half of his salary. Tarasenko is a big reason St. Louis won the Stanley Cup in 2019 and has 44 goals in 97 career postseason games. More quietly but also notable, the team signed top defenseman Gustav Forsling to an eight-year extension.

2. HEAT: Surging Miami cools, falls back to edge of play-in purgatory: Since a seven-game losing skid in January the Heat had surged to win 11 of 13 games -- but now two straight losses have dropped Miami to a tie for sixth place in the East. The top six make the playoffs proper; seeds seven through 10 face a play-in tournament. Heat is now two games below the goal of fourth place, which would earn home-court advantage in the postseason’s first round.

3. DOLPHINS: Fins bracing for free-agency losses but add TE Smith: Miami signed its likely new starting tight end in free agent Jonnu Smith, who’d been cut by Atlanta despite career highs last season with 50 catches for 582 yards. TE production has been a disappointment under coach Mike McDaniel the past two season. If Smith sounds familiar, he had a productive college career in Miami for FIU in 2013-16, with 178 catches. Miami also re-signed FA DB Nik Needham. The cap-strapped Dolphins (still $18.3M over) still are in talks to extend Tua Tagovailoa and brace for key FA losses possibly including DT Christian Wilkins and OG Robert Hunt.

4. INTER MIAMI: Messi likely for strategic rest tonight vs. Montreal?: No decision until just before gametime but I’d be surprised in Lionel Messi plays tonight in an MLS home match vs. Montreal. Herons are off to an unbeaten start (2-1-0) in league play and have a big home game in CONCACAF Champions Cup play on Wednesday night. This is a $5 million tournament Miami really wants to win. Miami faces fellow MLS club Nashville again after drawing game 2-2 in the first eg on comeback goals from Messi and Luis Suarez.

5. NFL: Playoff game in sub-freezing K.C. proves catastrophic for some fans: The Dolphins’ January 13 playoff loss in Kansas City was brutal -- but worse for some Chiefs fans who attended the 26-7 victory over Miami and suffered such severe frostbite many are now being advised to schedule amputations of affected body parts. Temperatures sank below zero with windchills measured at minus-28, and an estimated 35 fans were treated for hypothermia. Dr. Megan Garcia of the Grossman Burn Center estimates 70 percent of patients admitted for frostbite are now being advised to undergo amputation, mostly on fingers and toes..

6. MARLINS: Luzardo named Opening Day starter but bats still missing: Miami, off to 4-6 spring start, not surprisingly named So Fla-grown Jesus Luzardo, 26, as Opening Day starter. He’s counted on to be the staff’s ace as Sandy Alcantara misses the 2024 seaon after Tommy John surgery. Pitching likely won’t be the problem for the Fish. Scoring will be. Offense looks like a problem again, after a quiet offseason of little spending failed to solve the glaring issue.

7. NBA: Gobert money gesture to ref should have league’s attention: Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert’s money gesture aimed at referee Scott Foster earned him a technical foul. Could bring a fine, too. But it also should have the NBA’s attention. Gobert did not deny what he did and said sports betting could be having a big impact on the outcome of games. The implication that Foster or any referee might be on the take should be taken seriously and investigated by the NBA. Gobert might owe an apology. But if he’s right, basketball has a big problem it had better attack.

8. BOXING: Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson. No, seriously!: Boxing and MMA continue to mishmash and degenerate into something approaching pro wrestling in clownery. The latest evidence: YouTube star-turned-brilliant self promoter Jake Paul will fight 57-year-old former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson on July 20, airing on Netflix, in the main event of a boxing card in Arlington, Texas. Will I watch this blatant and rather athletic money grab? Maybe. But 100 percent if you can promise me Tyson will school and pummel Paul and leave him in a dazed heap on the canvas.

9. SAILING: American woman accomplishes around-the-world first: Women’s History Month, indeed! Cole Brauer, 29-year-old from Boothbay, Maine, has become the first American woman to sail solo around the world. She was the one female to accept the Global Solo Challenge, and her journey covered 26,000 nautical miles in just over 130 days, from last October to now, and beginning and ending off the coast of Spain. “I can’t believe it guys. I sailed around the world!” she told her almost 500,000 followers on Instagram Live. “That’s crazy. Absolutely crazy. Let’s do it again. Let’s keep going!”

10. ANIMALS: Latest chapter in Iditarod’s dubious history: The 52nd annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is underway in Alaska, and officials imposed a two-hour time penalty on musher Dallas Seavey, a five-time champion, for not properly gutting the moose he shot to death as (he said) it threatened his team of dogs. Animal-rights groups like PETA and even the more conservative ASPCA have condemned the race as abusive, noting that in its history more than 150 dogs have died while competing. Abolish the Iditarod? A more moderate but humane suggestion would be to dramatically shorten it. Running dogs 1,000 miles across eight to 15 days is where the charges of abuse and cruelty take root.

Other most recent stuff from me: How Dolphins re-signing Tua will be at great cost -- including weakening roster elsewhere // Caitlin Clark starts Women’s History Month off right // Born to fail? Bronny James, Charlie Woods and the impossible footsteps of LeBron and Tiger // Dolphin Tyreek Hill’s past off-field issues don’t mean he’s guilty in the latest // The Florida Man Games: A sort-of Olympics, but with dumb events and non-athletes // Previous HB10 // And my latest podcast: