Tampa Bay Lightning To Play Outdoor Game Against Nashville Predators

Each season, there are a few hockey games played in the great outdoors. Usually in baseball or football stadiums up north. The Tampa Bay Lightning will participate in one for…

Mason Dixon

Published Jun 28, 2021 10:26 PM EDT

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Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Each season, there are a few hockey games played in the great outdoors. Usually in baseball or football stadiums up north. The Tampa Bay Lightning will participate in one for the first time.

On February 26, 2022, the Tampa Bay Lightning will face the Nashville Predators as part of the "NHL Stadium Series". This is Tampa Bay's first time experiencing the outdoor series. The game will be in Nissan Stadium, where the NFL's Tennessee Titans play.

As an organization, the Tampa Bay Lightning is not unfamiliar with playing in a baseball stadium. They played their home games in Tropicana Field, then called the ThunderDome, from 1993–1996. The Lightning holds the record for largest crowd at a playoff game when Tampa Bay hosted the Philadelphia Flyers in 1996 in front of a crowd of 28,183.

The NHL began playing outdoor games in 2003 with the Heritage Classic. They added in the NHL Winter Classic, and now play several outdoor games annually.
The other announced outdoor matchup in the 2021-2022 season is the 2022 Winter Classic on New Year's Day. The game features the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild at Target Field in Minneapolis.
[Source: Tampa Bay Times]