TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Lightning were scheduled to play their preseason finale Monday night at Amalie Arena against the Nashville Predators. That game has been canceled as the team prepares for Hurricane Milton's arrival. Instead, the team practiced in an empty arena.
Among the options the Lightning were considering was evacuating to Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Bolts will open their season on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
"Stay ahead of it, plan, make sure we have things in order so they don't have to do too much thinking,” head coach Jon Cooper said after Monday's practice. “We’ve been really good at that over the years. Our staff that looks after these things.”
“It's obviously hard,” captain Victor Hedman added. “We have to be business when we are at the rink. But our thought is for those people that are going to be affected. We barely recovered from the last one before it starts again. It's tough but we have to prepare for Friday.”
The Lightning’s season opener is Friday at 7 p.m. at Carolina. The home is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 12, at 7 p.m. against Carolina at Amalie Arena.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will evacuate Tampa on Tuesday morning. The team will relocate operations to the New Orleans area for the rest of the week before Sunday's game at the Saints.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
