This weekend, the 2026 NHL Stadium Series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins took place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay. The weekend was filled with excitement, with both the game and the annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival taking over the city. The historic game was filled with many moments that will be remembered year after year and will be talked about in the coming weeks.
The NHL knew that the warm weather, combined with the humidity, was going to be an issue for the ice, but they 
had already experienced most of that at the Winter Classic in Miami, which took place a month earlier. They took all the necessary steps to ensure that the ice was in the best shape possible. The rink was built inside a temperature-controlled tent, the tent was where the teams hosted practice leading up to the event. On the day of when Tampa was experiencing record low temperatures, they were able to take the tent down the morning of the game rather just a few hours before puck drop.
This year’s game was the 2nd most attended Stadium Series in history. Roughly 75,000 fans came from all over to experience the game. This falls short of last year’s Stadium Series between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Detroit Red Wings last year at Ohio Stadium which had 94,751 fans in attendance. 
The Tampa Bay Lightning completed a historic comeback, scoring 4 consecutive goals against Bruins Goalie Jermy Swayman successfully tying the game and ultimately securing the win 6-5 in a shootout.
That’s not all a rare goalie fight occurred mid game. Swayman and Lightening goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy met at center ice adding to the entertainment factor of an already exciting game.
This game between the two eastern conference teams could very well have been a teaser for the early playoff rounds in April. Currently the Lightening are holding the first spot in the Atlantic Division while the Bruins hold the 2nd wild card position.
