LIGHTNING SPECIAL SECTION
FLORIDA FACEOFF
Since 2020, a Sunshine State team has won the Stanley Cup four times. The Lightning want to regain supremacy.
Has time caught up to the Lightning?
The Bolts are returning with their roster basically intact. How much longer can they keep winning with this core group of players?
TAMPA — Think of them as gunslingers. Admired and feared in equal measure.
For a dozen years, they have done the deeds and reaped the rewards. And, for a while, they were as good as it got. Just a bit quicker on the draw than everyone chasing them.
That hasn’t been true for a while now, although it’s not always wise to test that idea. On some nights, when the ice is right and their sticks can’t miss, they remind you of the lords they once were. The victors they still aim to be.
Yup, the Lightning are back together for another ride.
Their place among the NHL elite continues like a run-on sentence. More playoff victories than any team in the league since 2014, more goals and regular-season victories, too. They’ve been to the playoffs 11 times in 12 years, including four Stanley Cup final appearances.
Except now the gray is showing around their visors.
When the 2019-20 season began — the first of back-to-back championships — they were practically kids. Mikhail Sergachev was 21 and Anthony Cirelli was 22. Brayden Point was 23, Andrei Vasilevskiy was 25 and Nikita Kucherov was 26. Ondrej Palat, Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos were all in their 20s.
Not anymore. Sergachev, Palat and Stamkos have moved on. Now, of the team’s eight highest-paid players, six are either over 30 or months away.
ond in the Vezina Trophy voting.
Ryan McDonagh, who turned 36 over the summer, led the league in plus-minus rating.
And yet there are signs of fatigue. Of the years and injuries taking a toll.
Vasilevskiy has dealt with back issues. Kucherov, who scored more postseason goals than any player in the NHL from 2014 to 2022, now has one goal in his last 16 playoff games. Hedman, who was a Norris Trophy finalist for six consecutive seasons, hasn’t made the cut in the last three years.
JOHN ROMANO Columnist See ROMANO, 5X
Some of that is circumstances. Salary-cap issues robbing the team of needed depth, for instance. And running into eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida in the first round of the past two playoffs.
“I think the guys we have right now, they’re all going to be really good players for a long time,” general manager Julien BriseBois said. “I think the only two that would qualify for being mid30s players are Hedman and McDonagh. Those two are elite hockey players, elite athletes and they are exceptions to the rule. They are guys who are going to still be able to perform at a high level into their late 30s, maybe even early 40s.”
It’s not as if BriseBois hasn’t been prepping for this eventuality. He made the difficult call to let Stamkos walk at age 34, while bringing in Jake Guentzel, who was nearly five years younger. The Lightning have also brought in younger players such as Conor Geekie, J.J. Moser and Brandon Hagel in recent trades.
If you take a step back, it was the only logical thing to do.
No doubt, they are still among the best in the world. Kucherov, now 32, has been the league scoring champion the past two seasons. Vasilevskiy, now 31, was sec-
By 2023-24, it was clear the Lightning were not operating at the same level as they had the previous three seasons when they
Ryan McDonagh, 36, is still among the top defensemen in the NHL. The Lightning’s roster skews older when it comes to many of their star players. (DIRK SHADD | Times)
Matthew Tkachuk, left, and his Panthers teammates have replaced Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Lightning as the beasts of the East. Tampa Bay seeks to reverse that trend in 2025-26. (LUIS SANTANA | Times)
LIGHTNING PREVIEW
ROMANO
continued from 4X
had made the Stanley Cup finals, but it would have been insanity to blow up a roster that included Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, Point and Hedman.
So BriseBois has walked the narrow line between today and tomorrow by keeping the core intact while also trimming around the edges and adding new blood when possible.
The secret sauce, as he saw it, had been perfectly mixed last year. And there were times in the regular season when it appeared true. They were winning at a better clip than they had since their last Eastern Conference championship season, with excellent results on special teams.
So, again, it made sense to keep the roster mostly intact. The Lightning have swapped out a few pieces on the depth side, but will begin this season with the same basic look as last year.
“To start the season like this, with a group similar to last year, (shows) belief from management not to shake things up and make a lot of changes,” McDonagh said. “Now it’s up to us as players and team staff to get the job done, start off on the right foot and see where the team can go.”
The question is whether sand remains in the hour glass, or if time has already run out for that Hedman/Kucherov/Vasilevskiy/
Point/McDonagh/Cirelli group. All six have played 90 or more postseason games in a Lightning jersey, which is a rare feat in salary cap-era hockey.
There’s comfort in seeing them on the ice. And, as BriseBois said, there is still excellence in their games.
And yet there’s no getting
around the idea that Tampa Bay is 4-12 in the postseason since 2023. Those type of numbers do not typically turn around the older you get.
GM Julien Brisebois on older players such as captain Victor Hedman, near left, and Ryan McDonagh: “Those two are elite hockey players, elite athletes. ... They are guys who are going to still be able to perform at a high level into their late 30s, maybe even early 40s.”
Contact John Romano at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @Romano_TBTimes.
(DIRK SHADD | Times)
BY EDUARDO A. ENCINA Times Staff Writer
TAMPA
There’s such a fine line between winning and losing in the NHL, and momentum can shift so quickly. It can come as a fortuitous bounce or a shot pinging off iron, a big hit or an untimely injury. Puck luck is certainly a factor.
All good teams need some breaks along the way to play deep into the postseason. The ones that are resilient often hoist the Stanley Cup.
The Lightning have been on both sides of that fine line, a team that built a budding dynasty with 11 straight playoff series wins and three straight trips to the Cup final, including back-to-back Cup titles. But they’ve lost four straight playoff series, including three first-round exits.
Getting out of the Eastern Conference might be more difficult than ever.
The team that stands in their way is their state rival, the Florida Panthers, who eliminated them the past two seasons, both times in five games. The Lightning beat the Panthers on the way to the Cup final in 2021 and 2022. Then Florida took pieces of Tampa Bay’s winning model, put a physical wrinkle into it and is now the top hockey team in the state.
“We’ve been on the other side plenty of times,” Lightning captain Victor Hedman said. “It’s not up to our standard to lose in the first round. And you can look at it any way you want, and that team ended up winning, but we look at what we did during the regular season and that shows that we’re good enough. So for us, it’s all about stepping out of our own comfort zone and getting back to what we know works.”
The Lightning realize that a deep path through the postseason still goes through the team that is no longer the little brother.
To say Panthers-Lightning meetings can get fiery is an understatement. Panthers center Brad Marchand, left, and Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak exchange words last postseason.
(LUIS SANTANA | Times)
To be the best, beat the best Starting in state
After three straight first-round exits, two against the Panthers, the Lightning are looking for a path back to the Stanley Cup.
Guentzel, making the core group younger. Still, the Lightning are one of the league’s older teams.
The Lightning still have a oneof-a-kind talent — headlined by back-to-back scoring champ Nikita Kucherov — and they return most of their group from last season. They didn’t do a whole lot on the free-agent market, most notably adding bottom-six center/wing Pontus Holmberg. They re-signed Yanni Gourde, who was acquired along with right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand in a deadline deal. More than in recent years, the Lightning will lean on internal options in hopes of building a forward group that can roll four lines deep like they used to, and the Panthers have, through their dominant years.
Players like Conor Geekie and Gage Goncalves will see expanded roles, and then there’s the likes of Jack Finley, Max Crozier, Jakob Pelletier, Wojciech Stachowiak and Dylan Duke — and even a veteran like Boris Katchouk — doing everything they can to show they can be contributors at the NHL level.
“Even if we won the Cup last year, I’m sure (Panthers general manager Bill Zito), he’s still trying to improve his team,” BriseBois said. “It’s a never-ending job. You’re always trying to get better, because that’s how you increase your odds of winning, regardless of where you are in the standings. ...
“What’s exciting for us now is some of that growth might be internal. It might be organic. We have some young players that are going to be pushing to play a bigger role I think, and it’ll be exciting to see if they’re able to do that, and how quickly they’ll be able to do that.”
Seeking another role reversal
Eight members remain from the Lightning’s last Cup-winning
“I thought in the regular season over the last few years, we were pretty all right, but the playoffs were just a different story,” Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy said. “It didn’t help that we played the Stanley Cup champion two times in a row, but I mean, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”
team in 2021, but they lost several key players through free agency during a flat salary-cap era.
The cap now rises significantly annually, and the Panthers retained all three of their big-ticket free agents — Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad — on team-friendly deals to try to do something the Lightning couldn’t: win three straight titles.
There was a lot to like about last year’s team. General manager Julien BriseBois focused on improving play in 5-on-5 and goals allowed. During the regular season, the Lightning were a top-five team in goals scored, goals allowed, 5-on-5 ratio, power play percentage and penalty kill percentage. The team lost Steven Stamkos, but brought in Jake
Recapturing the find-a-way mentality
The Lightning were less than four minutes from sending last postseason’s series back to Tampa tied at two games apiece before the Panthers scored two goals in 12 seconds to take the Game 4 lead and eventually a 3-1 series lead. There have been huge momentum swings like that throughout
LIGHTNING PREVIEW
the rivalry, like when Ross Colton scored a game-winning goal with 3.8 seconds in regulation to win Game 2 in Sunrise, the defining moment of the Lightning’s four-game sweep of the Panthers in 2022.
“It’s different years, different teams,” Lightning center Brayden Point said. “When you’re winning, you just seem to find a way, and that’s something (we haven’t) been able to do the last few years, is just find a way for someone to step up or someone make the big play.”
It would be unwise to discount the regular season. Teams want to develop good habits, earn home-ice advantage, get healthy and be playing sound when the playoffs come around.
the 2023-24 season, he had studied up on the Lightning’s two playoff series wins over Florida in 2021 and 2022.
Injuries are an unpredictable factor, and the Panthers already face that with captain Aleksander Barkov out for the season after knee surgery. (Florida could get Barkov’s full $10 million hit in long-term injury cap relief to help replace him, but Barkov would be ineligible to return in the postseason.) And right wing Matthew Tkachuk (torn adductor muscle, sports hernia) is potentially out until December. The Lightning will be without third-line center Nick Paul for the first month of the season.
Winning the postseason chess match
“You start to look at the things that Tampa was doing to Florida that was causing them an awful lot of problems,” Maurice said. “And the power play was one of them. So when I came in I had a pretty good understanding of this Florida-Tampa Bay rivalry.”
The popular notion is that special-teams opportunities dry up in the postseason, but that has been anything but true over the four playoff meetings between the state rivals, and the team that wins the special-teams battle has emerged victorious every time.
Last postseason, the Lightning’s 2-for-18 power-play performance against the Panthers was glaring. In the Lightning’s six-game, first-round win over the Panthers in 2021, they were 8-for-20 on the power play, followed by 4-for-15 in their four-game sweep of the Panthers in 2022 (all four came in Games 1 and 2 in Sunrise as the Lightning took control of the series).
Kucherov expressed his frustration with the Lightning’s playoff power play, saying regular-season numbers become diluted by scoring a lot of goals against bad teams. Being better prepared for the postseason — especially knowing the Lightning might again face Florida — is a key to turning the needle back in the Lightning’s favor.
Before last postseason’s series began, Florida coach Paul Maurice said that when he was coaching the Jets, he had a tradition of watching every playoff game the newly-crowned Cup winner played during the summer. So before he took the Panthers job going into
The Panthers’ aggressive and physical playing style leads to more penalties and nets more power-play opportunities. In the teams’ 20 postseason games against each other, the Lightning averaged nearly four power plays a game, which is a lot. So the key to winning has been making the Panthers pay for giving those man-advantage opportunities.
“I think it’s the consistency and discipline in our game,” Kucherov said. “We can’t play one game and then three games that are just like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ That’s the difference. Florida did it two, three years consistently.”
Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com.
Lightning center Jake Guentzel was a key acquisition ahead of last season and he finished as the team’s second-leading goal scorer with 41, one behind Brayden Point.
(DIRK SHADD | Times)
The Lightning have had their big moments against the Panthers, like when Ross Colton scored the Game 2 winner on May 19, 2022. (DIRK SHADD | Times, 2022)
Call it the Kucherov effect
The Lightning were accused of manipulating long-term injured reserve to win a Stanley Cup. A salary cap is coming for the 2025-26 postseason.
BY EDUARDO A. ENCINA Times Staff Writer
TAMPA — There was outrage throughout the league when the Lightning won their second straight Stanley Cup in 2021 after utilizing a loophole to bring Nikita Kucherov back for the playoffs. The star right wing had been on a long-term injury exemption for the entire regular season, allowing the team to exceed the salary cap by his $9.5 million salary. General manager Julien BriseBois got additional cap relief that year through waivers and other long-term injured reserve (LTIR) maneuvers. When Kucherov returned to action in the postseason, the salary cap didn’t apply.
The Lightning played into the controversy, wearing shirts during their boat parade celebration that said “$18 million over the cap.”
They weren’t the first team to do it, and they certainly weren’t the last. The Blackhawks utilized LTIR in 2015 on their way to a third Cup in five seasons. Vegas used the exemption when they claimed the Cup in 2023. And last season, the Panthers played Matthew Tkachuk on LTIR, allowing them to trade for Brad Marchand at the deadline. Both played in the postseason on their way to a second straight Cup.
A new collective bargaining agreement will take effect starting in 2026-27, but the league did
See AGREEMENT, 11X
Last season, playing with fewer players helped the Lightning accrue cap space and use it at the trade deadline. With a postseason salary cap in effect, GM Julien BriseBois says the Lightning might carry more players on the roster. (CHRIS URSO | Times)
Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov celebrates a goal during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. Kucherov, who missed the entire regular season, ended the night with two goals and an assist.
(DIRK SHADD | Times, 2021)
LIGHTNING PREVIEW
continued from 10X
expedite some of the new rules for this season, most notably: There will be a postseason salary cap that teams have to adhere to, so players coming back from LTIR for the playoffs must fit into the day-to-day cap hit.
There also will be a limit on how much a team can exceed the salary cap in LTIR. In the past, teams gained the full value of a player’s contract. Now the league is restricting the cap relief to $3.817 million, the NHL’s average player salary, with the premise that it will prevent teams from placing star players on LTIR.
The only exception is if a player is declared to have a season-ending injury (including the playoffs) while placed on LTIR. It’s a decision the Panthers face with captain Aleksander Barkov, who is expected to miss seven to nine months after knee surgery. If Barkov is declared to have a season-ending injury, the Panthers receive his full $10 million cap hit in relief, but he is ineligible to return in the postseason.
BriseBois always has said that a team doesn’t want to be in an LTIR situation, and he’s right to an extent. Having free cap space and being able to accrue day-today space by carrying fewer players — the Lightning rarely field a full 23-player roster — allows a team to grow more space for the trade deadline.
But the Lightning also benefited from the LTIR exemption.
Aside from the Kucherov situation, the Lightning carried the contract of retired defenseman Brent Seabrook for three seasons after trading away Tyler Johnson to Chicago in the 2021 offseason. Seabrook’s $6.875 mil-
lion annual hit pushed the Lightning into LTIR. Even though teams will gain full LTIR relief for retired players under the current rules, trading for dead contracts becomes much more cumbersome as teams try to get out of LTIR.
This offseason, the Canadiens traded away the dead contract of retired goaltender Carey Price to San Jose to gain more cap flexibility. The deal also helped put the Sharks above the cap floor.
BriseBois believes teams will see the impact of new CBA rules more around the trade deadline.
The CBA also includes a new guideline that disallows double retention in a trade, which will eliminate third-party broker trades a great deal.
Under that rule, the Lightning wouldn’t have been able to make last season’s deadline deal for Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde. In that trade, the Lightning took on just 25% of Gourde’s contract (he carried a $5.15 million annual cap hit), the Kraken took 50% of the remaining salary, and the Red Wings ate 25% essentially in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick.
The Red Wings also were a third-party broker that took on salary in the Lightning’s 2021 trade deadline deal with Columbus to acquire veteran defenseman David Savard, a key acquisition in that year’s Cup run. Detroit took on 25% of Savard’s remaining salary and Columbus 50%.
In both deals, the Lightning acquired players at the deadline at a 75% discount. BriseBois indicated that will become a thing of the past.
“At most really, at the deadline, you’re getting a player at 50% off, not 75% off,” BriseBois said. “So that option is now off the table for teams, not just us but for all teams.”
But the biggest impact
will be the postseason salary cap. Not only would the Lightning have not been able to make the Savard trade in 2021 when Kucherov was on LTIR, but they wouldn’t have been able to deal for Anthony Duclair and Matt Dumba when Mikhail Sergachev went on LTIR two seasons ago and returned in the postseason.
The Lightning open the season under the cap, and depending on whether they carry 13 forwards or seven defensemen — or both — they have roughly $2 to 3 million of annual cap allotment. Last season, playing with fewer players helped the Lightning accrue cap space and use it at the deadline. With the postseason cap, it makes saving cap space less valuable. BriseBois already indicated that he might carry more players on the roster.
“Whoever’s coming in come playoff time, you need to kick out pretty much the same amount of money, so you’re not adding to the existing roster that’s part of a playoff roster,” BriseBois said. “If you’re adding at the deadline, you’re now substituting. So it makes (accru-
Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard.
ing cap space) a little less appealing.”
Last season, playing with fewer players helped the Lightning accrue cap space and use it at the trade deadline. With a postseason salary cap in effect, GM Julien BriseBois says the Lightning might carry more players on the roster. (CHRIS URSO | Times)
Playoff exits, leveling up and Olympic payoffs
Q&A: Coming off a breakout year, left wing Brandon Hagel talks about the disappointment of how last season ended and excitement for the future.
BY EDUARDO A. ENCINA Times Staff Writer
BRANDON — Lightning
left wing Brandon Hagel is coming off the best season of his NHL career, a 35-goal, 90-point performance that ended with him being named an NHL second-team all-star.
Hagel, 27, also has emerged as one of the Lightning’s emotional leaders. He doesn’t wear a letter on his jersey, but there’s no question that his passion for winning rubs off on his teammates.
The future is bright for Hagel. He’s in the second year of an eight-year deal that keeps him in a Lightning uniform through the 2031-32 season.
And after helping Canada to gold in last season’s 4 Nations Faceoff, he’s in line to play for Canada and Lightning coach Jon Cooper in the Olympics in Italy in February.
But last season didn’t end the way Hagel wanted.
After returning from a onegame suspension for a hit on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2 of
the Lightning’s first-round series loss to Florida, he was knocked out of Game 4 by an elbow to the head from Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad and missed the remainder of the series with a concussion. Hagel talks about what fueled him during the summer, his outlook for this season’s Lightning team, whether the tension with Florida will carry over, his emergence as a leader and how representing Canada in the Olympics would mark a full-circle moment for him.
(This interview was edited for length and clarity.)
You had this great 202425 season, the team
played well in the regular season, but the playoffs ended in disappointment again. How do you use that as motivation for this season?
I think the worst part is three years in a row going out in the first round. That’s not what we know here.
I know a lot of guys don’t know that. I think that’s more of the sour taste in your mouth, and that’s just not going to be acceptable anymore, especially with the group we have in this room and the belief we continue to preach in this room — with the guys we have, the depth we have, and the goalie, and the team and the best player (Nikita
Kucherov) in the world and the best coaches in the world.
It kind of comes down to us now. We’ve almost lost more first rounds than we’ve won. Listen, you’ve just got to find a way to win in the playoffs. (Florida) just found ways to win, that’s really what it came down to.
The temperature of that Lightning-Panthers series intensified as it went on. Clearly there was bad blood there, especially with the Ekblad hit. Will there be any carryover going into this season?
If anything’s gonna carry over, I don’t think it’s gonna be about the hit. I think it’s
gonna be about losing to them and them being our almost big brother at this point, where we were that to them for a long time. So I don’t think anything will carry over other than that. We just need to get back into that winning mentality.
I think the rivalry is going to continue to stay. It’s going to stay forever, and especially when two of the best teams in the NHL and the teams that have represented the Eastern Conference are both in Florida. That’s the mentality and it’s not going to be easy. They’re a good hockey team and they’ve been a great hockey team for many years. But also we’re a really good hockey
team, and we’re just not finding ways to win.
What level are you hoping to take your game to this season?
It’s kind of getting to a point where it’s just kind of finding consistency. That’s all I want to do. I want to come and be a consistent player and whatever numbers I happen to have at the end of the year, it’s good. But it’s also (team) success. Seven years into my career, that’s something I’m trying to get.
Obviously, my No. 1 goal is trying to help that team get to that next level. We bring back the exact same team,
Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel on bowing out early in the playoffs: “That’s just not going to be acceptable anymore.” (DIRK SHADD | Times)
from 12X
so you don’t really need to make anyone feel at home or learn new types of things. The management’s giving you another crack at it, because they had so much belief in you, and we’re gonna go out there try to do that because it’s time to do that.
You’ve really emerged as a leader. How have you grown into that role of becoming more vocal among your teammates?
You’re lucky enough to get to learn from guys that won Stanley Cups and knew what it took to get to that next level. And you get to sit there for the first couple, three or four years and just kind of watch it and it really shows what a leader is.
And we’ve had so many guys come through this dressing room that were incredible leaders. Guys like Pears (Corey Perry), Patty (Maroon), Stammer (Steven Stamkos), (Pierre-Edouard) Bellemare, guys that have left, that you learn from.
Obviously, everyone loves a little bit of competitiveness and a little speaking up, and not everyone leads that way. And I think that’s a little bit of my personality, so I’ve tried to take a little bit more there, and I think that everyone in this dressing room wants to win. Sometimes you take out those loud voices, and some guys lead different ways, and there was an opportunity to maybe speak up a little bit for myself, and I’m going to continue to try and do that as well as try to lead on the ice.
You spent a lot of time in the offseason working with Nikita Kucherov. What have you learned from him?
It really helped last year, just even the little details you see going on the ice. Whether it’s the drill we’re doing or just certain little things that kind of grow throughout your game that you never even knew existed. It’s something positive when you can add something like that to your game, something that you didn’t even know that exists.
I’m 27 years old and I’ve been playing the game for a long time. You continue to learn and he’s the best at what he does in the world. And if you’re going to learn from someone, it’s probably going to be him. And obviously, I like to score goals, so does he.
You’re just doing a drill and you’re just kind of sitting there, and like, ‘Where would I do this?’ and Kuch is so good at just actually explaining the situation throughout a game. And I go, like, ‘OK, that makes sense. You’re like, ‘Oh, dang. I didn’t even know that was a better way to do it,’ whether it was to take the puck out from behind the net or off the wall or little things like that. It’s more thinking through the game.
You could have the opportunity later this season to represent Canada in the Olympics. What would that mean to you?
It would obviously be a dream come true. Listen, if you told me a year ago or two years ago that I would have the opportunity to possibly make the Olympic team, I would call you crazy.
It gives me shivers thinking about it, because of the stuff I went through in my career. I’ve been cut from many different teams and not signed, and then all of a sudden, seven years from now on, I have a
Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling, right, gains control of the puck as Brandon Hagel, left, and Panthers defenseman Nate Schmidt join the play during the teams’ firstround playoff series last season. (DIRK SHADD | Times)
chance to potentially make the Olympic team. Did I think of it as a kid? Not really, I would have loved to, but I never thought it was possible, to be honest. You always dreamed of the Stanley Cup as a kid, and then obviously, watching the Olympics is pretty cool, but I don’t know if that’s even 1% of the world. I just never thought I’d have a chance to do that. There’s no words really to describe what that would mean to a Canadian kid.
Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard.
What’s new this season other than the arena name
Benchmark International Arena still takes some getting used to, and there’s also a new local TV rights-holder and concessionaire.
BY EDUARDO A. ENCINA Times Staff Writer
TAMPA — Change can be a good thing. The Lightning have a new TV home on Scripps Sports that will expand the team’s viewer reach and experience. The home arena now goes by Benchmark International, which purchased naming rights during the summer. And fans can expect improved food offerings at games.
How to watch games
The Lightning’s over-the-air flagship station, The Spot Tampa Bay (WXPX-Ch. 66), launched over the summer and will show all games that are not exclusively broadcast by national rightsholders (ESPN/ESPN+/Hulu/ ABC/TNT).
Fans will be able to watch games on that station for free if they have an analog antenna.
Depending on your provider, games will be accessible on cable and streaming platforms. Locally, The Spot can be viewed on Spectrum (Ch. 17), DirecTV (Ch. 66), Frontier (Ch. 23), Blue Stream (Ch. 5) and Summit (Ch. 9). It is also available on the FuboTV streaming service.
The station has yet to be picked up by Hulu Live or DirecTV Stream, but Scripps is in negotiations with those platforms. Don’t count on them being available by the beginning of the season. As for YouTube TV, given that Scripps has been unable to work out a deal with it in other NHL markets, it’s unlikely to see Lightning games available on the Google-owned streaming platform.
Fans also have the option to purchase games direct-to-consumer through the Lightning app for a
$66 full-season plan. The app can be downloaded on Smart TV platforms like Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and more.
For fans outside Tampa Bay, there are several affiliates throughout the Lightning’s TV territory that will broadcast games: in Orlando (WRBW), Gainesville (WGFL), Tallahassee (WFXU) and Pensacola (WFGX).
The direct-to-consumer app option and Fubo TV streaming option also are available in Tallahassee and Panama City.
For more information about local TV access, visit TampaBay Lightning.com/HowToWatch.
Changes to broadcasts
You’ll see the same Lightning TV broadcast team on Scripps Sports — play-by-play man Dave Randorf, color analyst Brian Engblom, rinkside reporter Gabby Shirley and studio host Paul Kennedy — but the coverage will be more entertainment-focused than just X’s and O’s.
The Lightning’s analyst team expanded to include former Lightning forwards Pat Maroon and Ryan Malone, who join the existing crew of Dave Andreychuk, Braydon Coburn and Adam Hall. You’ll see multiple analysts on set for more conversations and breakdowns.
There’s a new pregame studio set outside the arena in Thunder Alley that will allow for more fan interaction and include a demonstration area so analysts can break down plays. The Scripps Sports intermission reports and postgame shows will be held at a new set inside the arena in the all-inclusive club level renamed The Mark. When the Lightning play a
national-exclusive game, Scripps Sports will broadcast a pregame show that will focus on the team from a new studio — also with a demonstration area — located in Clearwater, where they also will shoot pregame, intermission and postgame shows when the team is on the road.
The game broadcast will add two robocams to provide more angles of the ice.
The product could evolve over time, and include in-game hits from analysts at ice level and walkup pregame interviews.
Faster food options
After a long partnership with Delaware North, the Oak View Group is the Lightning’s new concessionaire. OVG will bring a re-imagined approach that focuses on faster service with more variety. The most visible upgrade will be
self-checkout markets throughout the 100 level that should shorten wait times and allow fans to get back to their seats quickly.
The Market on Four, which debuted last season with Tampa-themed food offerings, will have new options, including Gangchu Chicken, the popular Seminole Heights Korean fried chicken spot. The former Budweiser Biergarten rooftop bar has been rebranded as the Michelob Ultra Sky Deck and will offer new food options.
Amalie is out, Benchmark is in
From Day 1, Benchmark International, the mergers and acquisitions firm that purchased the arena’s naming rights, has been committed to investing in the community.
Benchmark International and the Lightning are holding a threeday open house weekend of free events Oct. 17-19 at the arena.
Festivities begin Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. with a Lightning watch party for the team’s road game in Detroit combined with a food tasting by Oak View Group featuring arena vendors and Tampa-themed items.
A concert by Grammy-winning recording artist Maren Morris follows on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m.
And on Oct. 19, the weekend rounds out with a public skate on the ice at 9 a.m. and a movie screening of “Inside Out” at 4:30 p.m.
Admission to all the events is free and can be reserved at gofevo. com/group/openhouseweekend.
Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard.
From left, Paul Kennedy, Adam Hall and Braydon Coburn sit on the new Scripps Sports pregame set in Benchmark International Arena’s Thunder Alley. (LUIS SANTANA | Times)
No place like Tampa, television
Q&A: Pat Maroon will be a familiar face to fans in expanded broadcast coverage.
BY EDUARDO A. ENCINA Times Staff Writer
TAMPA — Pat Maroon spent a lot of time in front of the camera as a player. A transition to broadcasting seems like a natural next move.
Few have a winning resume like Maroon, currently the only player to win three straight Stanley Cups — the last two with the Lightning — since the Islanders dynasty teams of the early 1980s. He’s been a leader on the ice and in the dressing room, and his fun-loving personality has made him a fan favorite everywhere he’s been, especially in Tampa Bay.
Maroon, 37, tested the broadcast waters with guest analyst work for ESPN, TNT and NHL Network while he was still a player. Since retiring at the end of last season — after 14 seasons in the NHL — Maroon and his family moved back to Tampa. This season, he is a Lightning alumni ambassador, already having participated in clinics and appearances.
But Maroon really wants to give TV a go, and he joins the Lightning’s expanded Scripps Sports broadcasts as a studio analyst, a job that will allow him to really sink his teeth into a second career.
We chatted with Maroon about returning to Tampa, the kind of voice he wants to have on game broadcasts and what he thinks of this Lightning team. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)
Since joining the team as an alumni ambassador, you’ve talked about doing more to make Tampa a place where players can retire and stay connected to the organization and each other. After you hung up your skates, why call Tampa home again?
Like I tell everyone else, we’re going to make this place home until we figure something else out. Tampa is community to us, Tampa’s family to us, we love Tampa, and we don’t see ourselves leaving anytime soon. My daughter (Goldie) was born here. (Oldest son) Anthony absolutely loves it here. Now, my youngest daughter (Estelle) is going to grow up living here. We’re just really happy to be in Tampa and the community and people that surround us. So we’re really enjoying it.
What have you learned from the TV work you’ve done in the past that will help you in this new role with Scripps Sports?
The biggest thing that I’ve learned is be yourself, you know what I mean? Sometimes I tend to get away from being myself, and I think that’s the hardest part of just being you and having fun with it and breaking down the game because that’s what we’re naturally good at, right? Naturally, we see the game and we break it down, right?
But I think being funny, being active and having your own personality show. So I’ve learned that, like, ‘Hey, don’t be so
stiff up there. Start talking hockey and crack a joke.’ I think that’s what we’re gonna bring to Tampa . We’re gonna bring that little fun that they need. I’m not gonna sit there and chirp on the panel, but we’re gonna try to be more light with it, have fun, and not just like X’s and O’s.
Is there any analyst you’d like to model yourself after?
I think (TNT’s) Paul Bissonnette is probably the best guy. He’s got that fun, bubbly personality. That’s why he’s been so successful at his job because he doesn’t (care) what people think about him, and I think that’s why he’s so good. And that’s why people love him, and that’s why people sometimes hate him.
Do I think he likes the Toronto Maple Leafs like he makes it look? Absolutely not. I think it’s all for the show. And that just goes with it, right? You have to do those stuff to build the following and build something people want to watch.
But for me, I played for a long time, too, so I know how to win, too, and I know what it’s like. So I’m going to have to be knowledgeable and break down the game and not just be funny all the time.
Put your analyst hat on for a moment, and tell us what you think about this season’s Lightning team. What do you like about them and what might be a concern?
Their window’s still open to win. The biggest thing for me is they signed all their key core players. Now it’s
Why did Pat Maroon and his family move back to Tampa after his NHL retirement?
“Tampa is community to us, Tampa’s family to us, we love Tampa, and we don’t see ourselves leaving anytime soon.” (DIRK SHADD | Times , 2022)
just putting in the pieces that’s going to help them get over the hump. I like their D, I do. I like their top four. I think after that, it’s kind of hit or miss, right? (Ryan) McDonagh-(Erik) Cernak is probably one of the best defensive pairs in the league. I think they’re deep enough to go on a deep run. Are we going to get a healthy (Andrei) Vasilevskiy this year? I hope so. With a healthy Vasilevskiy, I think he takes them over the hump. We’ve all seen what he’s capable of doing.
But I think there’s holes
to fill on the Lightning roster. Tampa was in that deadcap era, and now they’re trying to get back on their feet. Now, the cap’s up, and now (Florida) gets to sign all these guys. And guys are willing to take less money. If (Nikita) Kucherov and (Brayden) Point and (Brandon) Hagel and (Jake) Guentzel and (Anthony) Cirelli are still playing at this high level, now you just fill the gaps and try to find guys that you know will help them, right, help us solidify a third line, have your fourth line be connected.
But after the two lines, I think it’s just fill in those third-, fourth-line roles. I think what they’re lacking is maybe that fifth, sixth, seventh D man. They have a lot of guys who log 24 minutes a night. And maybe if they have a good fifth, sixth, seventh guy who can go up and down and play more than 12 minutes a night, maybe give them 14-15, it will put a lot less pressure on the big guys.
Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard.
