Lightning Stanley Cup boat parade live blog

The Tampa Bay Lightning are celebrating their Stanley Cup championship with a boat parade Monday. NHL.com independent correspondent Corey Long is on the scene and will have you covered with all the sights and sounds from the festivities.

3:40 p.m.

After waiting for more than 90 minutes, the weather was not cooperating and the celebration event was cancelled. It's unclear if the event will be rescheduled.

3:15 p.m.

Despite the weather, many fans braved the elements and stuck around in hopes that the ceremony would resume. Steven Stamkos and several others signed autographs and posed for pictures while the stage was set up. Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Conn Smythe Trophy also took pictures with fans.
The Lightning players have begun to arrive to the stage as the rain continues to pour down.

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2:40 p.m.

The weather is getting rough after the Lightning's three-hour tour on the river. After disembarking from their boats, the players, coaches, staff and owners took a break and were expected to take the stage for a ceremony, but it currently is being delayed because of rain and high winds.
Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, coach Jon Cooper, captain Steven Stamkos, forwards Nikita Kucherov and Pat Maroon and numerous others are expected to address the crowd when the ceremony resumes.

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1:20 p.m.

Tampa Bay Mayor Jane Castor enjoyed her time on the parade route, waving a Stanley Cup champions flag as her boat, with Lightning mascot ThunderBug, went down the river.

The player boats are slowly coming into dock at Rick's on the River as the boat parade is beginning to wind down. The players will take a ride on a trolley and head to Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park for the land portion of the celebration, which will begin soon.

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12:30 p.m.

Coach Jon Cooper was dressed in Lightning blue donning a "Gronk" T-shirt. Rob Gronkowski, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end, who won the Super Bowl this season, is a four-time Super Bowl champion and no stranger to celebrating.

Speaking of football, captain Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn did their best Brady-to-Gronk impersonation, with Stamkos lobbing a pass to Killorn, who dove off his boat to receive it.

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12:20 p.m.

Pat Maroon is a man of the people. The three-time Cup champion wanted to get close to the fans chanting his name so the boat carrying him and defenseman Ryan McDonagh went along the riverwalk to shake hands and toss T-shirts (among other things) to the excited crowd.

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12:10 p.m.

After spending about an hour around Harbour Island downtown where the largest gathering of fans are, the boats are on the move. The planned celebration at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park is expected to begin at 2 p.m.

11:45 a.m.

The Stanley Cup is on a jet ski for the second year in a row. There was concern about how the Stanley Cup would be passed from boat to boat. The answer is jet skis. Forward Alex Killorn, who did laps around the Hillsborough River with the Cup last year on a jet ski, is back at it and was joined by forward Nikita Kucherov in making sure the Cup got safely to the boat that coach Jon Cooper was on. Killorn was adorned in his Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey.

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11:30 a.m.

It's bumper-to-bumper traffic along the Hillsborough River as thousands of fans are either out on the water in their boats or lined up along the parade route, which started down in the channelside district near Amalie Arena and will end at local establishment Rick's on the River about 4.5 miles away.

11:05 a.m.

The Lightning board their boats and the parade gets underway. Forward Pat Maroon promises the parade will be one to remember and says he has something in the works.

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10:30 a.m.

The Lightning players, coaches and staff, along with the Stanley Cup, arrived at the boat parade route via trollies

Forward Mathieu Joseph took the Cup and posed for pictures with fans before the parade began.