Re: 122 Franchises Ranked Bottom to Top:
81. Tampa Bay Lightning
Why? When you Ride with the Lightning, you want to Fight Fire With Fire but after 60 Minutes after losing a game it is For Whom the Bell Tolls for the team, and the fans Fade to Black.
The Good. Won their lone Stanley Cup in 2004, since their was no 2005 season, you could say the Lightning were champions for two years. Recently returned to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2015.
The Bad….Rough expansion pains, missed the playoff nine out of its first ten seasons, unable to pick up steam after the 2005 lockout.
The Ugly. The Lightning struggled in its first ten seasons, occurring a high amount of debt. It was rumored that the original ownership, Japanese Golf Course Company Kokusai Green was influenced by the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia).
https://www.si.com/vault/1998/03/30...-run-franchise-in-sports-on-the-brink-of-ruin
Where they play…Amalie Arena, used to be known as the St. Pete Times Forum, Amalie is an oil company but sounds like a Hallmark movie starring an 8 year old girl.
Owner: Tampa Bay Sports and Entertainment, with Jeffrey Vinik serving as chairman. An investor with Fidelity before starting his own practice.
Coach: Jon Cooper, Currently in his fifth season with the Lightning, already second in Lightning coaches for wins.
Top Current Players: Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Vladislav Namestnikov, Andrei Vasilevskiy
Hall of Famers…a few had cups of coffee here but I’m sure Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier are not too far behind.