The time has come to act on Tampa Bay's Stanley Cup odds

Tampa Bay’s NHL team is red-hot right now, but its eight-game win streak is hardly a matter of catching lightning in a bottle. 

The Lightning had a sluggish start this season—at least by its standards—but has since turned it around and now looks every bit like the team everyone expected to see from the beginning. Tampa Bay dispatched the Canucks on Tuesday to capture its eighth consecutive win and put up nine goals on Vancouver in the process.

That brings us to the Bolts’ Stanley Cup odds. If you’re considering a bet on the Lightning to win the Stanley Cup, now might be the time to get on it.

Odds to win the Stanley Cup

Only the Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, and Colorado Avalanche have shorter odds, and those can go up or down throughout the course of the season.

A $50 wager on the Lightning to win the Stanley Cup has a potential total payout of $550. If the Bolts remain hot and continue to climb the standings in the Eastern Conference, coupled with the fact that this team has been a Stanley Cup favorite multiple times in the last few years, their outright odds could fall again.

If you’re looking for value in the Lightning to win it all, there may be no better time to maximize it during the remainder of the regular season than right now.

Lightning offense continues to light up the NHL

There is definitely no shortage of high-end talent on Tampa Bay’s roster. Yet, if you went through the scoring leaders in NHL this season, it’s going to take a bit longer than expected to come across a Lightning player.

Brayden Point leads the team in goals with 18. That's good enough for 25th in the league, which would seem odd for a team that is scoring 3.69 goals per game, the best rate in the NHL.

That speaks to a balanced, potent attack, particularly among the team's top six scorers, and this was illustrated Tuesday against Vancouver, when the Lightning had 13 players hit the score sheet.

The Lightning also possesses a power play clicking at 29.2%, which is tied for the best in the league.

Goaltending is always a key for contending teams

Andrei Vasilevskiy’s numbers are down this season. Last year he posted a career-best .925 save percentage and was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy.

This year his save percentage is hanging around .911. That’s not bad and it is slightly above the league average. It’s just not what people have come to expect from the 25-year-old netminder. And it’s definitely not all on him, either.

The Lightning offense is definitely a major catalyst for success, but like every club looking to contend in the NHL, this team will need terrific goaltending going forward, especially during the playoffs, when physical play ramps up, space on the ice is limited, and goals are harder to come by.

The Tampa Bay goaltending has certainly improved during this latest streak (2.13 goals-against average), and that could be an encouraging sign.

Past playoff disappointment still lingers

Despite all the regular-season success the Lightning has had since 2013-14—325 wins and 209 losses—a Stanley Cup has eluded this franchise during that span.

Tampa Bay has been to the Stanley Cup Finals once and the conference finals twice, but hasn't been able to reach that ultimate goal, despite a roster that has been oozing with talent.

The Lightning was favored a year ago, in what many thought was a plush first-round matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets. There was a sweep, as some may have expected, only it was Columbus that punted Tampa Bay out.

That was no doubt a painful experience, given the expectations. And perhaps the Lightning’s slow start to this season was a result of the residual effects of such a devastating loss.

There will be an opportunity for the Lightning to change that narrative.

Will it present an opportunity for bettors to cash in, too?

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