It\u2019s also why, with nearly two weeks until the game, King and Andrew Higgins, NHL senior manager of facilities operations, haven\u2019t yet started obsessing over the forecast. They\u2019ll start doing that about 2-3 days before the first practices. For now, it looks like mid-to-low 60 degrees Fahrenheit at puck drop, which is \u201cpretty much perfect for us, it\u2019s the same sort of conditions we have in our venues,\u201d Higgins said.<\/p>\n
But if that isn\u2019t the case, if it is indeed warmer?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just means our trucks will have to work a little bit harder,\u201d Higgins said, noting that a heavy, warm rain is really the only weather that could prove truly difficult to work around.<\/p>\n
The trucks will be ready. The players will be too.<\/p>\n
Hedman is familiar with outdoor hockey. Not only did the Lightning play in the Stadium Series against the Nashville Predators on Feb. 26, 2022, but it was an integral part of his childhood back in Sweden, with a rink close to his house, where he spent his afterschool hours, his weekends, his time with his buddies.<\/p>\n
It was hockey as he knew it back home.<\/p>\n
But he never quite expected it to come to Tampa.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the start of my career, no,\u201d Hedman said. \u201cBut as things have progressed and we\u2019ve seen it in [Los Angeles], we knew there was a possibility. But a lot of credit to the Lightning organization for supporting this and wanting to have this, and obviously to the NHL for rewarding us to host a game here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lightning are ready for the experience, ready for Gasparilla on the preceding Friday and Saturday, ready to get to the rink for warmups — their arrival outfits are \u201call set,\u201d as Hedman put it — ready to see the atmosphere and everything that comes with the spectacle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone\u2019s just super excited for the whole experience,\u201d Hedman said. \u201cObviously the main goal about the game is still to get two points, but just the whole experience is going to be super, super cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s also why, with nearly two weeks until the game, King and Andrew Higgins, NHL senior manager of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-419935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}