2015-16 Tampa Bay Lightning regular season schedule revealed

It’s been all of 10 days since the end of the Stanley Cup Final and the 2014-15 NHL season. It seems a little awkward, and very convenient, that there is no wait to learn about next season. To start the week, we found out about the Lightning’s preseason schedule, Wednesday we found out that the Bolts will open the season on October 8th against the Philadelphia Flyers at Amalie Arena…

And this morning, we get the whole shebang: All 82 games of the 2015-16 Tampa Bay Lightning season have been unveiled to the public.

After the Bolts season-opener at home, the club will immediately jump out on the road to play the likes of Atlantic Division rivals in the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings. The latter two games of that road trip being a back-to-back affair on October 12th and 13th. The Lightning will have 12 different sets of back-to back games over the course of the season, with the Boston/Detroit series being the first and a pair of New York City games against theRangers and Islanders on April 4th and 5th being the last set of the season. The April 4th game against the Islanders will also be Tampa Bay’s debut appearance at Barclays Center, the Isles new home arena.

While the majority of games between Tampa Bay and the Atlantic Division was massed in the second half of the season in 2014-15, it’s much more spread out in the season ahead, with Buffalo, Boston, Detroit and Florida all making appearance early on the Bolts schedule (the season series with Buffalo is completed within the first month of play, with games on October 10th, 17th, November 5th and November 10th). The latest Atlantic Division series start date is with the Montreal Canadiens, with the series beginning on December 28th at Amalie Arena.

The Lightning will have two west coast trips (three if you count a trip to Arizona that ends a four-game road trip in March) both happening within a month of each other. Tampa Bay will be heading to California to play Anaheim, San Jose and Los Angeles between December 2nd and December 6th. The second western jaunt takes place from January 5th through January 12th with games in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Colorado. In a nice little schedule aspect, the Bolts will have time off between their game against Vancouver and their game in Denver against the Avalanche on the 12th. The last two seasons have had the Lightning playing in Colorado on the flip-side of back-to-back games; a cruel physical-challenge given how taxing the higher altitude can be.

The Stanley Cup Final rematch games with the Chicago Blackhawks are set for October 24th at United Center and January 21st at Amalie Arena.

The schedule has Tampa Bay playing two six-game homestands this upcoming season. The first will be during the holidays from December 20th thru January 2nd while the second will be the last homestand of the season, playing out from March 22nd through April 2nd.

While there are multiple four-game road trips over the course of the season, there will be a span of 11-of-15 games on the road between February 20th and March 19th. Though this span is road heavy, only two of the clubs on the schedule during this stretch (the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators) made the playoffs in 2014-15. It’s not like any of the opponents during this span (Boston, Philadelphia, Columbus, Dallas, New Jersey to name a few) should be taken lightly though.

The season finale is set for April 9th in Montreal against the Canadiens. The season closes with its four game road swing with thanks to Amalie Arena being the host of the 2016 NCAA Mene’s Ice Hockey Frozen Four.

One other notable point are two games scheduled at Amalie Arena for 8 PM on Wednesday nights – against the Rangers on December 30 and one against Detroit on February 3rd – appear to be NBC Sports Net Rivalry Night broadcast games.

You can view the full schedule here. Or view or non-broken down by month table: