Tampa showing it's a hockey town at PreGame

TAMPA -- The man had a plan.

Thomas Schooley arrived at 2 p.m. Friday, three hours before the gates opened at the 2018 NHL All-Star PreGame, a fan festival running throughout the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend.
RELATED: [NHL, Lightning take part in ball hockey rink opening | Complete All-Star coverage]
He figured out which metal detector was the closest to Autograph Alley, where Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov would sign at 5:30 p.m., and waited. When the gates opened, he cleared security, raced over and waited again.
But that's what it took.
He was at the front as the line grew, and grew, and grew, snaking around Ford Thunder Alley outside Amalie Arena -- hundreds of men, women and children in Lightning and All-Star Game gear.
When Kucherov appeared, the fans greeted him with a "KUUUCH!"
"A lot of people say we're not a hockey town," said Schooley, 40, of Tampa, wearing a Lightning hat and sweatshirt, holding his autographed puck. "I think Tampa's proven we are a hockey town."
It is the place to be right now.
Everything is coming together for the 2018 GEICO NHL All-Star Skills Competition on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVA Sports) and the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVA Sports).

The Lightning lead the NHL standings with 71 points and they have the best record in the League in terms of point percentage (.724).
They have the NHL's leading scorer, Kucherov, who has 63 points (27 goals, 36 assists). They have the League's leader in wins and shutouts, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has 29 and seven, respectively.
They lead the Atlantic Division with five all-star representatives: Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, forwards Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos, and coach Jon Cooper. Point replaced defenseman Victor Hedman, who is injured.
New Jersey Devils forward Brian Boyle, who played for Tampa Bay for three seasons (2014-17) and remains a fan favorite here, was named to the Metropolitan Division as an injury replacement for teammate Taylor Hall. Boyle, who is recovering from leukemia, should receive an incredible reception.
"We've got the best team in hockey, the best fans," said Ron Lynn, 60, of Tampa, wearing a homemade hat with a lightning bolt striking a hockey puck. "This is the greatest place to play hockey. Look at this."

As if that weren't enough, this All-Star Weekend happens to coincide with the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, Tampa's Mardi Gras.
The NHL has had its share of black beards and swashbuckling defensemen. It even had the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1920s. But it has never seen anything quite like this.
The festival was founded in 1904 by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla in honor of the legendary Jose Gaspar, a pirate who supposedly sailed in the waters off southwest Florida, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
Tens of thousands of people -- er, pirates -- invade Tampa each year now to watch the pirate ship Jose Gasparilla sail into the south end of Hillsborough Bay and the parade to march on Bayshore Boulevard.
Only this time, the Stanley Cup will be aboard the ship on Saturday, the keepers of the Cup incognito in full pirate regalia, and the grand marshal of the parade will be former Lightning center Vincent Lecavalier.
Instead of tossing foam cannonballs into the crowd as usual, the Krewe of Gasparilla will throw soft hockey pucks, according to the Times.
Might as well call it the All-Starrrr Game.
"This is going to be a Tampa party like most people ain't never seen before," Lynn said.
The party was just getting started Friday.
Just after the gates opened, fans watched Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban shoot pucks at an Adidas booth so hard he broke a pane of glass. They tried interactive exhibits, took selfies with mascots and lined up for those autographs.

Kucherov was to sign for an hour. Then Stamkos. Then Vasilevskiy. Then Dave Andreychuk, the captain of the Lightning's 2004 Stanley Cup team, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 13.
Cooper is to sign Saturday.
"What it's all about, huh?" Lynn said. "If things stay together, we will be bringing Stanley back to Tampa."
Imagine the party then.