Esposito's vision for Lightning hits new heights with outdoor game

TAMPA -- When Phil Esposito is asked to summarize the Tampa Bay Lightning's 35-year journey, complete with three Stanley Cup titles, the 83-year-old Hall of Famer replies, "It started with a dream."

It's one that certainly has come to fruition since he and his investors were awarded an NHL expansion franchise on Dec. 6, 1990, a historic day when the door was opened for the once-improbable concept of an NHL hockey team in Florida to morph into one of the most successful and lucrative franchises in the League today.

But even the brash, bold and never short-for-words Esposito, whose vision to make pucks a thing in the Sunshine State, could never have foreseen what's about to happen this weekend.

On Sunday, about 65,000 fans will pack Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to witness the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series between the Lightning and the visiting Boston Bruins (6:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS).

In his wildest imagination, could the Hockey Hall of Famer have predicted that there would come a day when outdoor hockey would come to the market where he helped nurture the sport for the past three-plus decades?

"No way. Not a chance. Are you nuts?" Esposito said in a 1-on-1 with NHL.com this week. "I mean, I thought hockey could work here when a lot of others didn't, and I worked towards making it happen.

"But outside? No way. Nobody was having outdoor games back then. It wasn't a thing yet."

It is now.

And the spectacle that will be hosted by this Gulf Coast city will be further proof of how the game has exploded here.

The inaugural regular-season outdoor game in the history of the NHL took place on November 22, 2003, 10 years after the formation of the Lightning, at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, when the Edmonton Oilers played the Montreal Canadiens in the 2003 Heritage Classic. It was the first of 44 such games the NHL has put on, with the Bruins and Lightning set to play in No. 45.

Earlier this month, the first outdoor game in the state of Florida featured the New York Rangers defeating the host Florida Panthers 5-1 in front of a crowd of 36,153 at loanDepot park, home of MLB's Miami Marlins.

Now the attention shifts to Tampa, where the Lightning have become a big part of Esposito's life after his Hockey Hall of Fame career as a player ended.

And the pride he has in the franchise that he helped bring to Tampa is always on display, as it will be once again this weekend.

"I have to say, the concept of these outdoor games is incredible," Esposito said. "And I think it took the people here a bit of time to grasp it. But it's taken off now.

"Here's an example. I got five calls the other day from people asking, ‘Oh boy, can you get me tickets?' The whole thing blows my mind. They just all of a sudden think, ‘Oh wow, this is going to be something big.'"

That it will be, including expected temperatures in the low 40s that, while being far below the norm here, will be ideal for outdoor hockey.

"And now we're going to have Winnipeg weather," he said with a laugh. "Ya, it just adds to it. I mean, I'm honestly happy it's going to happen."

In retrospect, without Esposito, you have to wonder if NHL hockey would have ever happened in Tampa Bay.

Thanks to his belief, the Lightning have left their mark on the community, both on and off the ice.

Think how far the franchise has come since their home opener on Oct. 7, 1992, at Expo Hall, where a capacity crowd of 10,425 attended the venue located on the Florida State Fairgrounds that normally hosts events like concerts and gun shows. When a fan threw a hat on the ice for Chris Kontos's hat trick goal in a historic 7-3 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks, then-Tampa Bay coach Terry Crisp revealed after the game that security guards tried to throw the guy out of the building for chucking on object on the playing surface.

Just one of the early growing pains for the franchise.

And yet, its popularity kept on swelling, much like the locals' knowledge of the sport did.

The Lightning moved to the massive Thunderdome, now Tropicana Field, in St. Petersburg, where they played games at the home of MLB's Tampa Bay Rays from 1993 to 1996. On April 23, 1996, the Lightning drew 28,183 to watch Game 4 of the team's Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers, the largest crowd to ever attend an NHL postseason game.

In 1996, a new 19,000-seat arena in the guts of the city known as the Ice Palace opened up and became the team's permanent home. At the time, there wasn't much in the surrounding downtown area known as Channelside other than a couple of hotels, one or two restaurants, and a whole lot of barren parking lots.

As the years progressed, so did development in the area, with the hockey team and the rink, now known as Benchmark International Arena, at the core of this remarkable urban transformation. Much of it had to do with Jeffrey Vinik, the team's majority owner from 2010-2024, who spearheaded the $3 billion-plus Water Street project that has seen an explosion of hotels, condos, eateries and bars in the surrounding neighborhood.

In the meantime, the Lightning have won the Stanley Cup three times (2004, 2020, 2021), and have been the Cup Final six times.

Since they first made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the 2002-03 season, the Lightning have the second-most regular-season wins in the NHL (962), behind the Boston Bruins (982).

This season, they lead the Eastern Conference with a 34-14-1 record, including a current 16-1-1 run.

On Saturday, an estimated 500,000 people are expected in downtown Tampa to watch the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest, which features the mayor handing the keys to the city to a bunch of pirates at the Tampa Bay Convention Center after they sailed into the harbor on a pirate ship. Lightning coach Jon Cooper calls it the city's miniature version of Mardi Gras.

Then comes the icing on the cake for the weekend -- the Bruins and Lightning playing in the elements in a football stadium.

A one-time far-fetched plan come to fruition? Esposito knows all about that. He lived it during his attempts to bring hockey to Tampa Bay.

"I always thought the sport would be successful here, or else I wouldn't have done what I did," he said.

"I believed. I believed in the people here. I believed that the people would be interested. I believed they would like this game because they liked football, they love boxing, they love wrestling, they love car racing and crashes. Well, we've got it all in hockey.

"Most of all, I believed they would enjoy it. And they have. And I'm really really happy about that."