Welcome to the last 82-game season for the Tampa Bay Lightning for the foreseeable future. Starting next season the league moves to an 84-game season (cool, it’ll probably mean another back-to-back for the Bolts) to boost the revenues a bit. For the second year in a row, there is a bit of a compression to the schedule as the NHL makes way for the Olympics in February.
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2025-26 season officially gets underway at home on Thursday October 9th at 7:00 PM as their expansion siblings, the Ottawa Senators come into town. It’s almost non-stop hockey (well except for that long break in February) until they wrap the season up with another home game. The regular season ends (for good or bad) against the New York Rangers on Wednesday April 15th.
Without a doubt, the highlight of the regular season will be the Stadium Series game at Raymond James Stadium on February 1st as they take on the Boston Bruins under the bright lights. It is also just one of four games they play that month thanks to the lengthy Olympic break. Much like last season, the break will lead to a busy finish to the season as they have 16 games in March and 8 games over 15 days in April.
The Bolts also have 15 back-to-back sets this year, with a whopping 10 of those on the road. Well, if nothing else it’ll make for some shorter road trips. Speaking of road trips, their longest one comes in January and features two games in Philadelphia, one in Pittsburgh, then a couple of days off before heading to St. Louis and Dallas. That road trip is part of 8 away games in January, against just 4 homes games.
According to Micah McCurdy, the Lightning will be facing rested teams after they’ve played the night before 11 times. It’s up there among the league leaders, but not at the top. That distinction belongs to the San Jose Sharks who will be doing it 13 times.
Tired/Rested games for the NHL 2025-2026 season.
— Micah McCurdy (@hockeyviz.com) July 16, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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Their first road trip in October features two sets of back-to-backs, first against Boston and Washington, and then Detroit and Columbus before a four-day break. Getting off to a good start will be helpful for the Bolts, because they don’t have many long stretches against divisional teams where they can make up a lot of ground in a relatively short amount of time. February features five-out-six games against fellow Atlantic Division teams, but those games come on either side of 19-day Olympic break.
They do close out the season with six games in a row against divisional foes, so that could make for some tense times down the stretch if the division (and the Eastern Conference as a whole) are as tightly packed together in the standings as they are expected to be.
As of right now the latest start time comes on the 4th of November as the puck drops in Colorado at 11:30 PM Eastern Standard Time for some reason. The earliest start time is at 12:30 PM on April 11th in Boston (something tells us that will probably be a nationally televised game). There is also a 1:00 PM EST start time on Black Friday against the Red Wings in Detroit.
There is no New Year’s Eve game in Tampa this year as the Bolts are in Anaheim on the 31st of December. It’s a 4:00 PM EST game, so plenty of time post-game to set up your festive night. But don’t party too late, because the Lightning are on the ice in Los Angeles the very next night.
Tampa Bay only plays the Florida Panthers three times in the regular season next year with the first game happening in Sunrise on November 15. A month later they meet again in Tampa on December 15. The third, and final meeting, of the year is the Bolts’ first game after the holiday break on December 27, once again on the Panthers’ home ice.
We’ll be here all season to cover all of the hits, goals, saves, bad passes, magical plays, and other nonsense, so stay tuned. October isn’t that far away!
Around the NHL
Anaheim commits to Dostal [Daily FaceOff]
After finally trading John Gibson, the Anaheim Ducks decided to commit to his former back-up as they signed Lukas Dostal to a five-year deal with a $6.5 million AAV. The pending restricted free agent had filed for arbitration, but will now settle into the role as the number one netminder for the Ducks as they hope to return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
Toronto trades for Dakota Joshua [Pension Plan Puppets]
The 29-year-old reunites with his former St. Louis Blues’ head coach, Craig Berube as the Maple Leafs acquire him for a 2028 fourth-round pick. As the PPP article mentions, things are getting crowded in Toronto’s bottom-six, and adding another forward is an interesting use of $3.25 million worth of cap space.
Domingue heads to Siberia [HC SBIR]
The 33-year-old former Bolt heads to the furthest reaches of the hockey world to keep his professional career going as he joins Novosibirsk in the KHL. He spent most of last season with the Hartford Wolfpack in the Rangers organization.
Yegor Chinakhov reportedly requests a trade [1st Ohio Battery]
The 24-year-old forward seems to have a bit of a rift with head coach Dean Evason. While his agent seemingly confirmed that an official trade had yet to be requested, it seems that the Blue Jackets are aware of the situation and are willing to part with him if the right offer comes their way.
