Lightning Crashes – Tampa Bay Dies – December 6

Lightning crashes, an old mother dies. Here at Sports Hub HQ we still listen to 90s bands like Live, whose hit “Lightning Crashes” might have been written prophetically for the 2023 Tampa Bay Lightning. Sure, the Bolts in blue somehow beat the Dallas Stars 4-0 on Monday night, but prior to that…? Yeah, they have not been the Tampa Bay Lightning of old.

The Lightning crashes have been many this season. Prior to Monday’s win, Tampa Bay lost four straight. What’s interesting is that Tampa beat the Stars on Monday, but Saturday they lost to Dallas 8-1! Before the four-game skid, the Lightning won four of five games. However, prior to that small spat of success, Lightning crashes doesn’t even begin to define the previous three-game stretch.

Over a five-day stretch in November from the 9th to the 14th, the Lightning played three games. They got spanked three times. The stretch started with a 5-3 loss to the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks! That’s the worst team in hockey right now (7-16-1). Then, the Lightning crashes again in consecutive shutout losses to Carolina (4-0) and St. Louis (5-0). Now, Tampa Bay is 11-10-5, in fifth place in the Atlantic Division, and is currently outside of the NHL playoff picture. What happened?

History of Success Before Lightning Crashes

The Tampa Bay franchise started in 1992 and made the Stanley Cup playoffs just once in their first 10 years of existence. Then, the Lightning crashes the NHL party. In 2002-03, Tampa Bay loses in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The following year, the Lightning won their division again and captured the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, beating Calgary 4-3 in seven games.

Since, the Lightning have been a mainstay in the NHL postseason. Last season, Tampa Bay lost to Toronto in the first round of the playoffs. In the three years prior, the Lightning played for the Stanley Cup each season. They won two straight in 2020 and 2021. 

With their early exit last year and their mediocre performance to start the 2023-24 season, is the lustre wearing off of the Lightning success? 

Why the Lightning Crashes

The poor start by Tampa Bay comes down to one thing – defense. The Lightning rank 28th in goals allowed per game – 3.58. They are down at the bottom of the standings in this category with teams like the Blackhawks and Sharks who will be fighting for nothing but the No. 1 pick in the next draft. 

In a recent game against the Penguins, the Lightning had 41 shots on goal. Pittsburgh had just 28. That makes it rather surprising that the Lightning crashes again. Tampa Bay lost that game 4-2 because of their inability to properly defend and due to their knack for turning the puck over in their own end. 

Tampa Bay has never been strong in xGA, or expected goals against. They may have been in the top 10 once in the past decade, but to be ranked in the bottom 5 is not good. The Lightning will get a chance to get back on the right side of things tonight when they host the Penguins again. The schedule doesn’t let up as Tampa Bay will then travel to Nashville to take on the Predators on Thursday. It’s early, but if Tampa Bay doesn’t fix itself, “Lightning crashes” is going to be a constant headline over the next few months.

Win $1000 The Easy Way

No, we’re not one of those late-night infomercials barking about how you can flip real estate here in Costa Rica and make big bucks. However, we can show an easy way to make $1000. That’s exactly what our top-3 handicappers did last night. All three are part of the cream of the crop here at SportsHub and last night they combined for 11 wins and $1010. 

All you had to do was be a member of Sports Hub and follow their picks. The trio made a bunch of college basketball picks with a few NBA and NHL picks mixed in there. The results were typical of our Sports Hub exclusive cappers. No lightning crashes here…just wins baby!

Here’s a look at yesterday’s leaderboard.

• The Bookie beats the books: If you just followed The Bookie, you would have gone 5-0 and won $500. 4-0 on college basketball picks with an NBA in-season tournament win as an appetizer. The Bookie is one of our experts that should be on your short list. He’s won $775 over the last three days, $1020 over the last seven, and $2720 over the last 30. 

• No. 2: James Acker is a name you’ll recognize if you’ve been a Daily Report reader. Yesterday, James went 3-0 and won $300. He’s 6-3 over the last three days and has won $961 over the last week. For the month, James is now up $1365.
• Tonny Ricci is back: Tonny was becoming a mainstay at the top of the leaderboard for a while. He’s back with last night’s 3-1 performance that netted him $210. Tonny has made some coin off of the Lightning crashes recently. He is in the top-10 of our NHL handicappers, winning 63.6 percent of his hockey picks over the last 30 days.
• Lightning crashes, Knup wins: It’s worth mentioning that Knup Sports has earned a ton of cash betting on the NHL over the last 30 days. Knup has correctly predicted over 61 percent of their 157 NHL picks and earned a cool $1195. If the Tampa Bay Lightning crashes, you can bet Knup will fading them sometime soon.

More on the CFP Debacle

It appears the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, is getting involved in the College Football Playoff ordeal that excluded Florida State despite the Seminoles being an unbeaten Power 5 conference champion. Has anyone paid attention to the NFL game totals this week? If you haven’t, check them out. It’ll remind you of Iowa.

The Hawkeyes are not trending, but here’s what is.

• MLB draft: The Cleveland Guardians won the MLB draft lottery despite having just two percent odds. Cleveland will pick first in the 2024 draft for the first time in franchise history. The A’s, Royals, and Rockies all had 18.3 percent odds of winning the lottery and the first overall pick. None of the three got the first or second picks. The Cincinnati Reds will pick second followed by Colorado third.
• QBs questionable: There’s no question about Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett. He’s out tomorrow night. Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence is a different story. It appears T-Law has a high ankle sprain, but he hasn’t been ruled out this weekend. Lawrence is questionable for Sunday’s game against Cleveland.
• NBA in-season tournament: This thing is really a hit and the NBA is loving it. The Bucks and Lakers advanced to the semifinals with wins last night. The Bucks will face Indiana and LA will take on New Orleans on Thursday night. Both games are at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

• DeSantis wants to sue CFP: The Florida governor wants to set aside $1 million for Florida State University to sue the CFP. The CFP committee, of course, left the Seminoles out of the playoff even though FSU went 13-0 and won the ACC championship. It was the first time an unbeaten Power 5 conference champ has not bee afforded the opportunity to play for a national championship.

Balls & Pucks on Today’s Schedule

There is a lot of basketball on the Wednesday schedule. Between college basketball and the NBA, there is enough to keep any bettor busy. Add in some Lightning crashes against the Penguins tonight and some Premier League soccer and today’s sports schedule is full enough.

Let’s take a look at it.

1. College basketball: Last night, we had 12 ranked teams on the court. Tonight, we get six AP Top 25-ranked teams in action, including one game featuring ranked opponents. That will be No. 12 Texas against No. 8 Marquette in the Big East-Big 12 Battle at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. There are dozens of games on the schedule and we’ll have dozens of picks for them. Check the members’ area throughout the day.
2. Wednesday NBA: There are 11 games on the NBA schedule tonight, including the usual Wednesday NBA doubleheader. San Antonio is playing at Minnesota in the early game and Denver is at the Los Angeles Clippers in the late one. The four teams playing tomorrow are all off tonight.
3. NHL: Will it be Lightning crashes again tonight? The Lightning will host the Pittsburgh Penguins to try and win its second game in a row. Tampa Bay is just 11-10-5 so far this season. Lightning crashes isn’t a phrase the team is used to over the past few years. They’ll have to pick up the pace if they plan on being a playoff team again this season.

4. Premier League leads soccer schedule: Six Premier League matches head up the Wednesday world soccer schedule. There is another women’s international friendly featuring Brazil against Nicaragua. Several South American leagues like the Brazilian Serie A and Colombian Primera A also have multiple matches. Check out our vast number of world soccer picks in the database.

We’ll get some Thursday night football tomorrow when the Pittsburgh Steelers host the New England Patriots. It might be a dud of a game, but our expert handicappers will show you where to find value. They’ll do that today too. Be sure to visit our picks database and get on the right side of the action today. Come back tomorrow with some more wins!