Tampa Bay Lightning Postpone Home Opener Following Hurricane Milton

Tampa Bay Lightning fans will have to wait a bit longer to see their team play a regular season game on home ice with news that the team's game on Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes has been postponed due to the effects of Hurricane Milton and continued recovery efforts.

The league made the announcement on Thursday.

"NHL Game No. 29 on Saturday, Oct. 12 between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes at Amalie Arena has been postponed amid recovery efforts in the Tampa Bay area from the impact of Hurricane Milton. A makeup date will be announced as soon as it can be confirmed," the NHL said.

The team posted their own announcement and sent their best to those affected by the storm.

The game was set to be the second part of a home-and-home series between the Hurricanes and Lightning with the two teams playing in Raleigh on Monday night.

The Lightning decided to head to North Carolina early this week to prepare for their season opener out of the hurricane's path. GM Julien BriseBois told the press that players were allowed to bring their families on the trip and staff members went along as well.

While Hurricane Milton made landfall a little bit south of Tampa, the city still sustained some serious damage. Raymond James Stadium suffered some "cosmetic damage" while Tropicana Field in nearby St. Petersburg lost its roof.

It doesn't appear that Amalie Arena sustained too much serious damage in the storm.

Ahead of the storm, the idea had been floated of playing Saturday's game in Raleigh. However, NC State has a football game at nearby Carter-Finlay Stadium — which shares parking lots with the Hurricanes' home, the Lenovo Center — so that creates some obvious logistic problems.

With Saturday's game postponed, and no new dates announced as of yet, the Lightning's home opener will now be on Tuesday, October 15 against the Vancouver Canucks.