Tampa Bay Lightning players Eric Brewer, Brett Clark, Ryan Malone and Nate Thompson were at Metropolitan Ministries today to help collect donations for the organization's annual holiday food drive.

Metropolitan Ministries has been providing nutritious meals and holiday gifts for poor, homeless and at-risk families in the Tampa Bay area for over 20 years. Their goal this year is to serve more than 25,000 families. The Lightning frequently partners with the organization in their efforts to serve the community, hosting food drives at games and getting players involved with generating publicity.

"This is an easy decision to come help out and see all the hard work everybody does here. It's amazing what an impact this has on families that need help. It's the least we can to come out and be a part of it. It's great when you realize how many families it really does help. Just bringing one turkey makes a difference." - Ryan Malone

"It's an honor to participate in something like this. You look around and see all the young kids here and the people that need help with the way things are going. You just see everyone stepping up, donating stuff every day and you want to get involved. You see all these cars pulling in and they're donating 40 and 50 turkeys. It's a lot of fun to be part of." - Brett Clark

Clark seemed particularly motivated in his involvement with the task at hand, wheeling carts loaded with donated items and even paying attention to detail in making sure the necessary paperwork was completed properly.

"Brett's a farm boy, he's used to hauling stuff off of trucks. Obviously, this kind of hard work comes naturally to him."- Ryan Malone

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Anyone remember last year, when people were surprised at the turnout for the Bolts training camp events at the Ice Sports?  Well, I think the franchise took deep note of that when planning this years camp.

Oh, it's not the on-ice drills and workouts that have been changed to accommodate an audience.  It's the fact there will be fan related events off-ice -- alumni signing autographs, face-painting for the kids, Thunderbug, the Lightning Girls,the Bolt Brigade, and arena hostess Brittany Zion being in attendance -- that emphasizes the fact the Lightning realize they have a good thing going in a passionate training camp crowd.

But to cut to the chase, the team released it's official schedule for public workouts this weekend.  

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Everything you learned during the 2010-11 Tampa Bay Lightning campaign is in the books now. It's over. It happened. Revel in it and rejoice at the over-achievements and accomplishments made by a franchise reborn under new ownership, management, and coaching.

But that chapter is over. Turn the page, please.

Don't get lost in the fact that the Bolts team that you knew last season are not the same heroes that will be protagonists in the story of the 2011-12 NHL season. The players on the roster that will participate in Lightning training camp, when it gets underway on Friday, have largely remained the same (with some notable exceptions). But things are different.

Guy Boucher, in an excellent Q and A with Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune, made it a point to bring the fact that the team starts over:

... But what we were at the end of the year is not what we are going to be at the beginning of this year. I think that's the common misconception that teams, organizations and fans usually have is that they think it just continues and it's an on-going process, which it's not. There is a break in between, there's a change of players, there's chemistry that is going to be a little different to start.

The bar has been raised for the organization as a whole over the past 18 months. The on-ice product raised the bar substantially from expectations of the recent past.

But the process of becoming, begins on Friday. And in that process, the team can only go as far as the desire, effort, and contributions by the players within the system.

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Paradise Worldwide Transportation are teamed up to provide a means for Bay area based Lightning fans to join the team at its exhibition game in Orlando on September 21^st . Round-trip bus service from Tampa to Orlando.

A limited number of seats remain in this ticket package at current.  Prices start at $30 for round-trip bus service alone (meaning you join the group for the ride, but have already purchased your own tickets). 

The bus is slated to leave directly romt he St. Pete TIems Forum at 4:30 PM, and return to Tampa from Amway Center approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the game.

For more information about the package, call 813-301-6887 by 5 PM this evening.

The Tampa Bay Lightning just announced this afternoon that tickets to the lone preseason game at the St. Pete Times Forum, September 23rd against the Florida Panthers, will go on sale this Friday, August 19th at 10 AM.

While this is the only date to be played at the St. Pete Times Forum, fans (willing to make a trip) will be able to witness another "home" game for the Lightning at Amway Center in Orlando on September 21st agains the St. Louis Blues.  Ticket sales for that game are ongoing.

The game also provides fans with the first opportunity to witness changes to the St. Pee Times Forum.  Times Palace has been undergoing an extensive renovation during the summer months, and while the building will still be a work-in-progress at the time, you should get a good picture what to expect in 25 days at the home-opener on October 17th.

Ticket prices for those going on sale Friday are available below the jump.  

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One thing that's happened a few times during the Tampa Bay Lightning road games this season is about to be packaged and franchised out to a wide swath of the Tampa Bay region, all at once.

I'm talking about viewing parties.

With the Bolts on the road for games one and two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, the franchise is partnering up with Bud Light and Bacardi to bring watch parties to seven local establishments in Hillsborough and Sarasota counties.

With five different parties scheduled for Tampa, I'm curious what happened that led to Pinellas County not making the cut for a party location? I'm sure there is business and logistics reasons for this -- but it just seems odd that parties were saturated in only one section of the area.

If your establishment in Pinellas County will be airing the Lightning playoff games, we invite you to leave a comment here on this post.

At any rate, the official watch party (of the seven listed) will be held at Brick House Tavern and Tap on South Dale Mabry Highway. Other locations are after the jump.

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The tough final weekend of the Lightning's NHL schedule has them closing out their season series with the Western Conference in back-to-back contests against the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

What was going to make this weekend even tougher, for fans, was the fact that Sunday evening's contest in Chicago was not originally scheduled for broadcast in the greater Tampa Bay viewing area.

That is no longer the case. Sunday evening's match-up with Blackhawks has been picked up by Sun Sports. Game time for that contest will be 7 PM EDT.

In addition to the game being aired on local TV now, the Lightning announced earlier this week that a watch party will take place at the St. Pete Times Forum. The (admittedly brief) details on this are below the jump.

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Mount up. A mid-summer's relief of hockey has arrived.

This Saturday, July 10th, through Wednesday, July 14th, the Tampa Bay Lightning will host 31 of the organization's prospects, along with some invitees. Known to the fans as the Young Guns camp, the practices -- happening twice a day at Times Palace for the next five days -- will be open to the public.

Everything culminates to the Young Guns game on Wednesday night, July 14th at 6 PM, and will be tied to Lightning Hockey Night broadcasting live from the XO Club. Also post-game, there will be a collection for donation drive for the families of Tampa Police department officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab. Curtis and Kocab were gunned down at a traffic stop last week.

The roster, as taken from Erik Erlendsson's blog post on Tuesday, reads as thus:

 

Goaltenders

Dustin Tokarski
Jaroslav Janus
Michael Zador

Defense

Mark Barberio
Brock Beukeboom
Kiril Gotovets
Radko Gudas
Joe Hartman* (Miami (Oh) University), 6-4, 200
Scott Jackson
Adam Janosik
Kevin Quick
Geoffrey Schemitsch
Ty Wishart
Luke Witkowski
Teigan Zahn

Forwards

Andrew Agozzino* (Niagra (OHL)/Peoria (AHL)], 5-9, 185
Carter Ashton
Brett Connolly
Mitch Fadden
Alex Hutchings
Brandon Hynes* (Victoriaville (QMJHL)], 5-8, 170
Alex Killorn
Adam Krause* (Hermantown, MN,) 6-0, 175
Jonathan Lessard* (Acadie-Bathurst (QMJHL) ], 6-0, 162
Tim Marks* (signed by Norfolk to AHL contract), 6-2, 217
Matt Marshall
James Mullin
Brendan O’Donnell
Richard Panik
Dustin Sylvester* (Kootenay (OHL)/Lake Erie (AHL)], 5-7, 170
Dana Tyrell
James Wright

 

A complete schedule of what is planned (times of practices and such) can be found on this post by Erlendsson.

The entire press release from the club is after the jump.

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