Each team has had to sacrifice something to achieve their ultimate goal, whether it be losing key players to free agency or a few injuries here and there.
But the longer this season goes on (and it's barely a month and a half old), the more I'm starting to believe the Florida Panthers sold their souls to some voodoo queen to win back-to-back Cups.
As my good friend Matt Reigle wrote yesterday, the Panthers lost another of their productive forwards when it was reported that Eetu Luostarinen would miss significant time with a hand injury from a barbecue incident.
I'm dead serious.
There's bad luck and then there's just a case of the universe being against you.
Loustarinen is just the latest in a long line of injured Panthers, many who were significant contributors to last year's Stanley Cup-winning team.
Of course, it started with Matthew Tkachuk right after the Stanley Cup Finals and snowballed from there.
The Cats have also lost their captain, Aleksander Barkov, for the majority of the season, as well as tough fourth-liner Jonah Gadjovich and "program guy" defenseman, Dmitry Kulikov.
As the injuries mount, Florida continues to look up at others in the Atlantic Division standings.
While there's still plenty of time to turn this around, the Panthers can ill-afford to lose more contributors.
When everyone started to crown the Panthers as a dynasty, something in the back of my head said it was way too soon.
The core of this team is still fairly young and locked into long-term deals, but this is how cracks start to form in a budding dynasty, and in a sport like hockey, this is just more proof how hard it is to win three Cups in a row.
If you're a Panthers fan, the message shouldn't be how the dynasty is over, but rather how lucky you were to witness such a run of excellence.
Again, this could all be for naught. Florida could get healthy and go on another deep playoff run.
My point is to just enjoy these things as they happen rather than always waiting for the "next one."
And, while you're at it, get me the number of that voodoo queen.