Sights & Sounds from the Lightning’s #TampaBayStrong opening night

The Tampa Bay community has spent the last three weeks wading through grief, uncertainty and a whole lot of drywall—all in the wake of two historic hurricanes with names more befitting to the front-porch rocking chairs at a Cracker Barrel. It’s a lot to take in, it will be for quite some time. But in Downtown Tampa Tuesday night, it was time for hockey.

The Lightning toppled the Canucks 4-1 in their home opener, improving to 2-0-0 on the season. Which brings us to a new season of Sights & Sounds: obscure thoughts and observations from everything Bolts Nation, both on and off the ice. The Bolts’ home opener brought much to talk about from pregame hurricane relief to the final horn and beyond. Let’s dive into the best of it.

Set aside your 5-Leg Anytime Touchdown parlays, the Tampa Bay Strong 50/50 Raffle is here

The Lightning Foundation kicked off Tuesday’s game with a monumental 50/50 raffle dedicated to raising at least $1 million toward hurricane relief efforts, guaranteeing a minimum prize of 500,000 big ones for one fortunate soul. Unlike prior 50/50s, this one lasts until December 29^th, so if the raffle surpasses the $1 million before then, the pot will keep growing to raise even more to help those in need. The current jackpot is already up to $150,000 as of this writing.

Outside on Ford Thunder Alley, the foundation kept a food drive rolling, in which fans could drop off non-perishable goods and relief supplies ahead of puck drop. They’ll be back in the plaza for Thursday’s game, too, so all the canned tuna you failed to eat during Helene and Milton won’t have to go to waste.

Victor Hedman takes to the ice #TampaBayStrong

It’s a remarkable thing, isn’t it? That after all of the devastation, confusion and hardship, a tall man on ice skates hoisting an oversized flag could be the exact right thing to make people feel like it’s all going to be okay. But there it was: the night’s first straight shot of Fire Me Up Juice for a community relatively stricken to distilled water and the occasional Debris Beer™.

The moment came after a special home crowd introduction that saw Bolts players take the ice under a revolving digital banner of local communities affected by Helene and Milton. Riverview, Anna Maria Island, Sarasota. Wherever you may have traveled from to catch Tuesday’s game, Nikita Kucherov and the boys likely skated under it.

Sports, Hedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning—the great unifiers of this community time and time again.

The Great Facilitators

The Lightning’s first goal of the night came courtesy of some sweet needle threading between Kucherov, Brayden Point and Darren Raddysh, with Kuch sending it home on a circle-to-circle dish.

Later in the second period, Jake Guentzel dropped one off to Point in perfect rhythm for a top-shelf ripper. The Bolts would go up 2-0. And the Canucks would never recover despite a valiant second period—and an even more valiant effort from a one-of-a-kind supergroup of Vancouverites...

The loudest ovation of the night

The Tuesday night crowd—ravenous after many nights of damp, bug-ridden candlelight—went bonkers for the 40 Vancouver lineworkers who traveled to Tampa to help with power-restoring efforts. When you flip on your TV this weekend, pour one out for the 3,227 miles these people traveled to help make air conditioning and another glorious college football Saturday possible.

The Big Cat is looking awfully Big Cat-y

Andrei Vasilevskiy received the second largest acclaim of regulation in the form of AMALIE Arena’s signature Vasy war cries. The former Vezina lord stopped all 21 shots he faced in even-strength play, finishing the night with 26 saves and the game’s second star.

The Bolts went 0-for-5 on the power play in a 4-1 win—alright!

Throughout the 2023-24 season, the overwhelming opinion from experts and Twitter comments alike was that the Bolts needed to get better at 5-on-5 hockey. Nikita Kucherov was a power play merchant. And Vasilevskiy was the apparent sufferer of brutal even-strength defense.

Not tonight, friends.

The Lightning failed to capitalize on five Canucks penalties (stick taps!), one of which was a double minor high-sticking from Jake DeBrusk. 14 penalty minutes. Zero goals. Here’s to passing on the man advantage, and to winning the good ol' fasioned hard way every night.

All photos courtesy of Casey Brooke Lawson and Mark LoMoglio for the Tampa Bay Lightning.