The Tampa Bay Lightning will have reinforcements when the puck drops on Game 6 this Friday in Quebec.<\/p>\n
The Lightning organization donated all-expenses-paid trips to Montreal to multiple full-time employees after winners were chosen from an office raffle. Instead of spending Friday at their desks in Tampa, employees will take to the skies\u2014and eventually the Bell Centre\u2014to cheer on their favorite team behind enemy lines.<\/p>\n
The organization paid for the employees\u2019 flights, hotel rooms and tickets to the game, and now the staff hope to pay it forward by sharing their support in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that’s a really cool experience,\u201d Community Relations & Social Impact Coordinator Katie McMahon said. \u201cI don’t think many people’s jobs, especially in sports, send you to the playoffs. I’m not in a travel position with my job, so I thought it was a really cool opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
McMahon just returned from a trip to Montreal visiting friends and got to experience the atmosphere outside the arena and downtown for Games 3 and 4.<\/p>\n
Now, she\u2019ll walk the halls and be in the mix inside the Bell Centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have heard nothing but good things about the Bell Centre. I know that’s where our players like to skate, just with the atmosphere of the Habs fans, and I know just from talking to some people internally, there weren\u2019t too many Lightning fans up there. I’m just excited to be able to support the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019re going to hold down the fort’<\/p>\n
Zack Lecorchick is also headed to the game thanks to the donation from Vinik Sports Group. Lecorchick has worked as an account executive on the membership sales and service team for almost a year after the Tampa native moved back home almost a year ago to take this job with the Lightning.<\/p>\n
He recently started traveling more, and this was the perfect chance to do it again while supporting his favorite team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was another chance to go do something really cool and with the team, so I figured I might as well sign up and see what happens,\u201d Lecorchick said. \u201cI\u2019ve never been to Canada. I got pretty lucky and got pretty excited pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
McMahon said she\u2019s ready to represent the Lightning at the game after enjoying the staff trip to Sunrise, Florida last year for a First Round game. Now that chance will take place in another country, but she\u2019ll still be adorned in Bolts blue from head to toe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope we don’t get chirped too much, if I’m being honest,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cThe game last year we were getting chirped left and right but there were a lot of us there, so there was strength in numbers. But we\u2019re going to hold down the fort for Bolts Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lecorchick will be there in lockstep.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019ve got to represent us proudly,\u201d he said. \u201cI know we’re going to be heavily outnumbered, but I can’t let that stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lecorchick is predicting a Lightning victory, and he\u2019ll get to see it in person if it takes shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cPicking up the win,\u201d Lecorchick said of what a perfect trip would entail. \u201cIt has to be. I mean, everything’s gonna be great. I’m sure I’ll do some exploring the other days and the times I’m not there, but what will make it perfect is picking up a nice win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both employees are appreciative of the donation and subsequent opportunity, one they wouldn\u2019t otherwise have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s so awesome. They obviously take a lot of the financial stress away from it because I’d love to travel to as many games as possible, but it’s not financially realistic for me,\u201d McMahon said. \u201cIt definitely reassures me that I’m in the right place. I have a company and an organization that cares about not only the guys on the ice, but the people who are helping run the front office, so I feel extremely appreciative for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lecorchick seconded the notion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just shows what pretty much everyone already knows is that Vinik Sports Group and the Lightning as a whole is just so well run,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s honestly what brought me here is knowing that I\u2019d have a great team behind me, a great ownership group, great everything that just wants to do cool stuff for their employees and make us feel like we’re at home. I think this just really shows what everybody already knows, which is that this is the top tier place to be. They go above and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning will have reinforcements when the puck drops on Game 6 this Friday in Quebec.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-253832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}