Paul Allen’s Sports

NIGHTMOVES®

SPORTS REPORT

BY PAUL ALLEN

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING:

At press time the Bolts brought out the brooms and swept away the NHL’s top team in 2021-2022. Yes those damn Florida Panthers are making tee times on the golf course because they are no longer playing hockey. The Lightning looked amazing as they held the league’s top scoring team to three goals in four games. If Andrei Vasilevskiy isn’t the best goalie in the world today … I don’t know who is! He was masterful and if his play keeps up I am con dent we will be lifting Stanley Cup for an astounding three-peat! The Bolts play the New York Rangers and then will play Colorado or Edmonton for the cup. GO BOLTS !!!

TAMPA BAY RAYS:

The Rays are like a red-headed step child in a very mean family. They get no respect, they are looked down upon, they have no superstar player and they are never listed as one of the best teams in MLB. Guess what ?? All they do is win! The Rays are always in position to win the American League East Division and even with the New York Yankees great start, the Rays are in position to hang another AL East Banner.

Shane McClanahan has been one of the best pitchers in baseball. He is the ace of the sta and when put together with Corey Kluber and Drew Rasmussen the starting pitching is solid … the bullpen is also pretty damn good! On the o ensive side of the ledger… Ji-Man Choi, Yandy Diaz, Randy Arozarena, Wander Franco and even Kevin Kiermaier are doing a good job. This team will be in contention all summer and the Yankees, Blue Jays and Red Sox better be ready for another season of looking up at the Rays!

TAMPA BAY BUCS:

The 2022 schedule was released and boy-oh-boy do the Bucs have their work cut out for themselves. They play one of the hardest schedules in the league but with TB12 we are ready for anything the league throws at us! Things start o just like they did last year with the Bucs playing the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night September 11 … this year in Dallas.

The next week the team travels to New Orleans to battle Jameis Winston and the Saints. That is followed by the year’s rst home game and that is against the Green Bay Packers!

Tough start … but wait!! The next game brings Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to Tampa! Now that is one di cult 4-game start! I think we win 3 out of 4 and that would be a great accomplishment!

The rest of the schedule features away games at Pittsburgh, Cleveland, San Francisco, Carolina, Atlanta and Arizona. Home games include: New Orleans, Los Angeles Rams, Baltimore, Atlanta, Carolina and Cincinnati.

The Bucs play both teams that played in last year’s Super Bowl (Rams & Bengals). The Arizona game will happen as part of the NFL’s rst-ever Christmas Day triple header. The Bus/Cards game will be the last game of the day. On November 11 the Bucs travel to Germany to play the rst ever, regular season, NFL game in that country against the Seattle Seahawks.

That’s one hell of a schedule but if any team can overcome things, it’s the Bucs!

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