New Study Proves Tampa Is A Hockey Town

We're deep into the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs and even though our Tampa Bay Lightning are out, Tampa is still proven to be a hockey town. While Bolts fans wait patiently for the resigning of captain Steven Stamkos, we're stuck watching the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers battle it out in the Eastern Conference Final. And this year's playoffs have some of the highest ratings in history.

Many people were invested in the first round of the playoffs with the Tampa Bay Lightning vs the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs. The battle of the sunshine state brought in almost 1 million viewers on cable, and that was for only 5 games. The 7 game Boston/Toronto series saw a record breaking 3.2 million viewers.

WalletHub crunched the numbers to determine the best places for hockey enthusiasts. They ranked 76 U.S. cities based on 21 key indicators of a good hockey city. Their data set ranges from ticket prices to stadium capacity to the performance level of each city’s teams. So keep in mind, this study doesn't include any Canadian viewership. They would blow the U.S. numbers out of the water since hockey is a religion in the great white north.

Well, our back to back cups and 3 consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances, constantly selling out games, and even hosting the NCAA Frozen Four should be enough to prove we love hockey in the Tampa Bay area. But Wallethub proves that Tampa is a hockey town. According to their findings Tampa ranks 8th overall for hockey towns in the U.S. (beat that Panther's fans). Tampa ranked:

You can check out how each U.S. city ranked as a hockey town here.

It doesn't happen often. But here are 10 times we caught the Tampa Bay Lightning's Nikita Kucherov smiling... or almost smiling.

Congratulations to Tampa Bay Lightning right winger and future NHL Hall of Famer Nikita Kucherov. Last night, he became only the 5th NHL player EVER to get 100 assists in a single season.

For those not super into hockey, an assist is when you pass the puck to a teammate who scores. Getting 100 assists in a season puts Kuch in some pretty impressive company with hockey legends like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Mario Lemieux. Before this year, it had been a long 32 years since a player accomplished this feat. For a brief fleeting moment, we caught Nikita Kucherov smiling as everyone at Amalie Arena celebrated.

Nikita Kucherov is one of the most intense players on the Tampa Bay Lightning and all of the National Hockey League. TV cameras often catch Kuch scowling and cussing himself out on the bench if a shift doesn't go exactly as planned. Even when he gets the puck in the net, Nikita Kucherov's celebrations are usually more of a loud ferocious yell instead of a cheerful celebratory grin. To catch Nikita Kucherov smiling is a special moment.

But here are a few rare shots where we caught the Russian cracking a smile... or almost smiling. Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lightning on securing another playoff run. The Lightning begin the quest for another Stanley Cup and boat parade this weekend. The Bolts will face off against in-state rival the Florida Panthers in the first round of the NHL playoffs. These 2 teams are notorious for getting physical so this series should be memorable. Go Bolts! And hopefully we'll be able to share some more of these rare instances of Nikita Kucherov smiling.