Bruins look to seize opportunity to gain on Lightning in Stadium Series matchup

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins could be excused for not wanting to leave home, not wanting to play anywhere other than TD Garden. They have, after all, won nine straight in Boston, including a 6-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

But their next game, their next road trip, won’t be the average midseason slog.

It will, instead, be a spectacle: the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS).

“Outdoor hockey, I think you can’t beat it,” forward Casey Mittelstadt said. “That’s pretty much what I do for All-Star break every year. So, yeah, very excited. It’s going to be a blast.”

It’s also going to matter. A lot.

In an incredibly tight Eastern Conference, especially in the Atlantic Division, no team seems willing to lose. No team seems interested in giving ground. Which means that not only will the Stadium Series game between the Bruins and Lightning be a highly anticipated experience, it will also be a crucial two points.

“There is a fine line where we’re at right now as a team playing against the best team definitely in the East, against Tampa, probably one of the best teams in the League right now,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm said. “So it’s going to be a good measurement. Hopefully it’s going to help us being outdoors. But we’ve just got to be ready for a very hot team.”

So do the Lightning.

The Lightning (34-14-4) sit at the top of the Atlantic Division, after going 11-1-1 in the month; the Bruins (32-20-3) sit in the second wild card spot after going 11-2-1 in the same span. Five points separate the two teams, with three other divisional foes between them.

“I haven’t seen it this tight since I’ve been in the League,” forward Tanner Jeannot said. “It’s pretty fun to watch. You want to go out there and get those points. You feel how important every game is and then after the game when you get the job done, you go and you look and see how the other teams are doing. Everyone’s winning, it seems like.”

This might not have been the anticipated outcome when the season started, after the Lightning went out to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference First Round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, after the Bruins finished well out of the playoffs.

The Bruins have been far better than expected, with their next win set to equal the 33 they had all of last season. They’re hoping that comes soon. Say, on Sunday.

But even with the necessity of getting the win, there is still room for excitement, still room to enjoy the experience of playing outdoors in an event that represented the NHL taking a risk, putting a game outside in what could have been -- but won’t be -- the potential for Florida heat.

There is still room for the anticipation of potential signature moments, the likes of which the Bruins have seen multiple times in the five outdoor games they’ve played in. Two of those came courtesy of current members of the Bruins, the overtime game-winner scored by Sturm in the 2010 NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park, and the third-period clincher scored by Sean Kuraly in the 2019 NHL Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

At the time Kuraly scored that goal, he knew it was big. It was there in the reaction, in the leap into the glass, in the way he raised his arms to the assembled crowd of 76,126, breaking a tie and handing the Bruins the eventual win against the Chicago Blackhawks.

What he didn’t realize was how big the moment would loom in his career.

“[It’s] a lot higher than I would have thought at the time, to be honest,” Kuraly said. “I knew how I felt as a younger player in the League, was super excited, as you could tell by my celebration.

“But as I look back and as I talk to people over the years, I get so many comments about people remembering that goal specifically, so I think you start to realize these bigger moments carry a little bit greater weight and gravity in people’s minds. People get emotionally invested in these big games and we do too. So I think a little higher on the list than you would have originally thought at the time.”

Maybe Kuraly -- or maybe one of his teammates -- will get to experience that on Sunday.

The Bruins hope so. For the hockey experience, for the life experience, for the importance of a game that seems like far more than just one out of 82.

“Obviously, business trip, two points, of paramount importance,” Kuraly said. “But you want to every once in a while take a second to look around and really enjoy it.”