Its going to be a special sports winter

We just finished off one of the most miserable baseball seasons in my entire life. For the first time since 2006 and just the second time since 1997 neither the Red Sox nor the Brewers made the playoffs. It was a boring summer with neither of those teams in the mix, but my suffering appears as if it may be rewarded, because this could be one of the most special sports winters in my lifetime.

Of course the Packers figure to be in the mix as they have been the last two years, and the Magic have a strong chance to make huge leaps of improvement from the past two years, but those two teams are not the reason why this sports winter should be amazing. The reason would be the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Wisconsin Badgers Basketball team.

This Lightning team should no doubt be the best Lightning team since the year they won the cup. 5 of the 12 hockey news experts picked the Lightning to go to the Stanley Cup Finals this year. Almost half! The dominant preseason the Lightning just put together did absolutely nothing to dampen expectations, as the Bolts posted a 5-1 record in six games, outscoring opponents by a combined score of 22-7! The Lightning of course have Steven Stamkos and one of the premiere goalies in the league in Ben Bishop. They also had two rookie of the year candidates last year who should make make the jump to premiere NHL players this season in Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. They also signed the top two free agent defensemen available, so the defense should be solid as well. The Bolts should be downright lethal.

After making a final four run last year and losing almost nobody, the Badgers are guaranteed to be in the top 5 in the preseason poll, and will probably even crack the top 3. This is expected to be the best Badgers team of all time and it should be a fun ride, and hopefully another final four.

Winter should be fun this year, so lets leave summer behind.