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Stadium:
St. Pete Times Forum
The venue, located in Downtown Tampa's Channel District was a secondary location chosen after the failure of Tampa Coliseum Inc. to secure funding to construct an arena on Tampa Sports Authority land near Tampa Stadium. The St. Pete Times Forum opened in 1996 as the Ice Palace. The arena was built as a new home for the Lightning to replace the Thunderdome in St. Petersburg, Florida, which is now known as the Tropicana Field. Upon the completion of the Ice Palace, both the Lightning and the Tampa Bay Storm, also a tenant of the Thunderdome, moved in and have made it their home since then.

Seating Chart:
St. Pete Times Forum Seating Chart

Team History:
When Tampa was awarded an NHL franchise in 1991, the team's management brought in star power before they had any players. The new franchise hired 1970s Boston Bruins star Phil Esposito as president and general manager; his brother Tony, a legendary goaltender who'd played mainly for the Chicago Blackhawks, as chief scout and Terry Crisp, who played for the Philadelphia Flyers when they won two Stanley Cups in the mid-1970s, and coached the Calgary Flames to a Cup in 1989, to be the first head coach. A St. Petersburg group (fronted by future Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes management Peter Karmanos and Jim Rutherford) was reportedly better-financed and only lost out because two Hall of Famers, Phil and Tony Esposito, were the "faces" of the Tampa-based group that originally won the team. However, in an ominous sign of things to come, Esposito's American partners backed out a few months before the season, and he had to recruit a consortium of Japanese businesses headed by golf course owner Kokusai Green in order to keep the team.

Season Preview:
Why do we get the feeling that it's all or nothing for the 2004 Stanley Cup champions? Maybe it's because so many of the Bolts' eggs are tied up in small baskets, such as the three big guns up front. Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis all have the potential to put up 100 points or close to it. If they do, the Bolts are clearly Cup contenders once again. If, as was the case last season, the three struggle for prolonged periods of time, then the playoffs become a challenge -- as was the case last season. Given the economic constraints under which GM Jay Feaster is operating, he'll need a couple of players to come out of nowhere, a la St. Louis in 2003-04, to get back to Cup range. He'll also need his one major offseason acquisition, netminder Marc Denis, not to blow up in his face.

Official Site:
http://lightning.nhl.com/