Some more thoughts…on returning to the area

I\'m going to change things up a little bit in this week\'s subscriber-only post. Instead of talking about the Tampa Bay Lightning, I\'m going to get a little more personal. For those around here that might not be aware, up until about three weeks ago, my time at Raw Charge, both as an independent blog and when we part of the corporate overlords, was spent as a proud member of the #DistantThunder fan base. That changed in October when The Wife and I moved back to the area after more than a decade away.

I was brought aboard by one of the original editors, John Fontana ( RIP ), when I was casting my voice into the digital void on my own personal blog and writing from Chicago. In the Windy City I was able to attend a draft and a few Hall of Fame Inductions using Raw Charge\'s media credentials, while being a lone speck of blue in a sea of red jerseys during the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. From there it was to Pittsburgh, where I was able to make a commute over to Philadelphia for the NHL debut of a certain cat-loving, long-haired goaltender.

After that life took us to Salt Lake City where I took over the reigns for the site during the Cup years and transition from being part of a corporate media organization to being a mostly independent blog. Let me tell you that covering an East Coast team from a mountain time zone location is exquisite. Nothing like being done coverage by 8:00 pm local time. After some years in the mountains, it was off to Savannah for a couple of years before moving back to the Tampa Bay area.

It has been a bit of an adjustment to say the least. I know we have several #DistantThunder folks that are avid readers from much greater distances than myself, and they may have similar feelings. When you follow, support, cheer on, curse, love, hate, forgive, a team that isn\'t in the city you live, there is a sense of detachment from things. You do feel a bit isolated at times, especially when it\'s not a team that has a huge national following. Being a Dallas Cowboys fan living in Utah is a lot different than being a Tampa Bay Lightning fan.

As great as it was to see the Lightning win back-to-back Cups, my celebration consisted of a cigar and glass of Irish whiskey on the porch by myself. It was great to see my phone light up with congratulatory texts, but it\'s tinged with a bit of sadness when there is no one to hug or high-five in celebration.

Things are definitely different now that I\'m back in town. It\'s only October, and it\'s been a lackluster start to the season, but there is still an energy that was missing. Perhaps the first time I noticed it was when I was at the gym, laboring away on a treadmill. On the bank of TVs hanging from the ceiling, I saw a reporter talking to Ryan McDonagh. My initial thought was, \"That\'s weird. Why is ESPN talking to McDonagh on a random Tuesday at the beginning of the season.\" Then I realized it was BayNews 9 (or whatever the channel is called these day) and it dawned on me that my local news now involved my favorite hockey team.

After years of living among Blackhawks, Penguins, Grizzlies (yes, we left right before the Mammoth came to town), and Ghost Pirates it\'s jarring to see Lightning logos everywhere. On cars, in restaurant windows, on billboards along 275 when you\'re stuck in traffic, it\'s just part of the landscape. When you live in a different city, especially one that has a NHL team, seeing the blue-and-white lightning bolt is like spotting a chupacabra. More folks thought it was weird that I was wearing a blue Flash logo than recognized it as a Lightning logos.

When you do see someone else repping the team, it\'s a surprise, and you immediately feel a connection with that person. Someone could be robbing a tourist in the alley and if the robber has a Lightning hat on, you\'re still like, \"Cool, a Bolts fan!\" before (hopefully) calling the cops. Even now that I\'ve been back in the area for a while there is still part of my lizard brain that reacted with surprise when I see a Lightning license plate in the Publix parking lot.

Another odd part of being a no-longer-distant-thunder-fan is that things I\'ve long ignored have relevance. Half-off of Papa Johns following a win? I can take part in that. Watch party at Thunder Alley? I can go to that as well (and should the Lightning make the playoffs, count on me being there). Have I thought about getting a ticket plan for a handful of games? Maybe. For many years, those activations, as the team likes to call them, just slid right from my email inbox to the trash folder.

Most importantly, it was the feeling of being home, which in the grand scheme of life and family seems so stupid, when I walked the concourse of Benchmark International Arena on Thursday for my first Lightning game with a Florida drivers license in my pocket since 2010. It was honestly emotional as I walked past streams of people in Stamkos, Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, St. Louis, and Rudy Poeshek jerseys.

Distant memories of being in college and waiting outside The Ice Palace for autographs (apologies to Michael Nylander for making him almost crash his bike into the wall), spending $5 for a ticket and then sitting in the lower bowl because the usher was a friend only to watch Kjell Samuelsson and Stephane Richer lose 6-1. The feeling of hope watching a young Brad Richards and Vinny Lecavalier develop their game. Playoffs in 2003. Going to games and watching from a luxury box because my dumb 25-year-old self had lucked into a job where vendors handed out those tickets like candy.

Being in the stands for an honest-to-gods Stanley Cup game. Talking to Daren Puppa on the phone after the Bolts won the Stanley Cup in 2004 (compliments of a delirious, probably-intoxicated friend who insisted on calling me and forcing Puppa to talk to me). I was even nostalgic for seeing Len Barrie wandering through the concourse in his bedazzled jeans during the Not So OK Hockey days (proving that anything can be viewed through a positive lens if enough time goes by).

As I stood there in the alcove with trophies that hadn\'t been won yet the last time I was in the building, I watched the folks walking around. The college kids, the families, the fans older than me (yes, there were a few) and felt a sense of being welcome that I hadn\'t realized I\'d been missing. Don\'t get old, kids, you\'ll get sentimental over dumb things.

The Lightning didn\'t win that night, but it was still a great night. Expensive beers, sitting next to a good friend, and complaining, in person and not on a keyboard, about the Lightning power play was great. Having someone, even a stranger, to high-five after Ryan McDonagh scores a goal was fantastic.

I love the online community that keeps Lightning fans together, especially those that choose to do it here at Raw Charge. That connection kept me going through all of those years away from the area, and it\'s one of the main reasons I didn\'t want this website to die during those tough few months after we were cut loose.

Thank you to everyone that reads, everyone that wrote for the site and will write in the future. Thank you to all of the commenters for sharing your stories, thoughts and lives with strangers. Thank you to everyone that has spent $4 or more to help keep the servers running. Thank you to everyone that hasn\'t spent a dime as well. Thank you to everyone that has mentioned us to a friend or a fellow fan. Thank you to The Wife for being a hockey widow for the better part of five months.

Most importantly thank you to the Tampa Bay Lightning, this delightfully frustrating and exhilarating team that keeps pulling us all together. It\'s great seeing your logo all over the place again.

Talking Points