{"id":413926,"date":"2026-09-29T17:50:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413926\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T17:50:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:50:50","slug":"launch-week-celebrating-the-return-of-lightning-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/413926\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch Week celebrating the return of Lightning hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 The Tampa Bay Lightning are celebrating launch week ahead of the opening of the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

Lightning Launch Week events are scheduled for fans for several days this week. \u00a0<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Lightning Pilates is happening at Armature Works at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Lightning Trivia Night is taking place Wednesday at the following locations: Pinellas Ale Works in St. Pete at 7 p.m., Tamiami Tap in Sarasota at 7 p.m., Top Shelf Sports Lounge in Wesley Chapel at 7:30 p.m. and The Blind Goat in Tampa at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

The season begins Thursday with a watch party. Fans can gather at Sparkman Wharf to celebrate the Lightning’s first game of the season vs. the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden<\/a>. The event will begin at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Bolts will introduce Blue Cup Day, a new celebration marking the return of hockey. Featuring numerous coffee shops throughout Tampa Bay, the first 50 paying customers at each participating location will receive a limited-edition, commemorative Blue Cup and a chance to win a number of surprise giveaways.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Lightning also are sponsoring Find The Bolt, a week-long scavenger hunt taking place at locations throughout the region<\/a>. Each day, a Lightning Bolt will be hidden at a secret location, with clues revealed through the team’s social media channels. The first fan to locate the Bolt will win an exclusive prize each day.<\/p>\n

It all leads up to Saturday’s game against the Washington Capitals at 7 p.m. at Benchmark International Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tampa<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay opens its home schedule on Saturday, Oct. 3 vs. the Washington Capitals. (Spectrum News image)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 The Tampa Bay Lightning are celebrating launch week ahead of the opening of the 2026-27…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,770,276,4386,17784,115,139,275,110,135,862,137,136,278],"class_list":["post-413926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-hockey","tag-lifestyles","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413926","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=413926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}