ThunderBug reunites with young fan after remarkable recovery

As Nicole and Jordan Ream got settled on their couch in their home in Tampa, Florida for this interview with NHL.com, their three-year-old son, John, could barely contain his excitement.

“ThunderBug!” John yelled with joy, as Nicole tried to detail the family trip to a recent Tampa Bay Lightning game. “Lightning!”

Eventually, to distract John, Nicole went to the TV and turned on NHL highlights, which kept the young superfan occupied.

Wearing his Lightning jersey, John grabbed his mini hockey stick and stood by the TV, enthralled by the players on the ice.

And so, the interview continued.

“Yeah, he’s very excited,” Nicole said with a smile. “He used to not be able to talk, so it’s insane that he talks so much.”

“I’ve never met a three-year-old who would watch hockey over any other show,” Jordan said. “For a really long time he loved ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,’ but now – even if I put it on – he says, ‘No daddy, hockey.’ … I love it.”

John’s hockey fandom, and specifically his love for the Lightning, started almost the minute he was born – extremely premature at just 23 weeks. He was born in April 2023, just as the Lightning were starting their run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

With John’s birth coming so early, he started his life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Nicole and Jordan – both being Lightning fans – decided to decorate John’s hospital room with loads of Lightning memorabilia, with the help of the non-profit organization Dec My Room.

The decorations included a stuffed animal of the Lightning’s mascot, ThunderBug, which caught John’s attention right away.

“(John) used to hug it, and just stare at it,” Nicole said. “It would make him laugh.”

“Everyone has a teddy bear or something, right?” said Jordan. “But ThunderBug was just different.”

When John’s first birthday came around, still in the hospital, the family decided to throw him a ThunderBug-themed party. On a whim, Nicole reached out to the Lighting to share John’s story, and to her surprise, ThunderBug himself decided to show up at the party.

John and ThunderBug bonded immediately, and the mascot even held John for a picture (something not many people could do due to his condition and hook-ups at the hospital), leading to a special moment for Nicole and Jordan.

“It was the first time we ever had perspective of somebody – that wasn’t hospital staff or family – treating our son as if he wasn’t connected to anything,” Nicole said. “As if he was just a normal little baby.

“Once (John) met him, it changed everything,” she added. “Then he became absolutely obsessed.”

And the fun didn’t end there.

Over the next few months, ThunderBug took the initiative to return to the hospital three times to visit John, much to the excitement of Nicole, Jordan and the hospital staff.

“ThunderBug just fell in love with this family and this child,” said Nick Farmer, a marketing representative with the Lightning. “That’s ThunderBug’s little buddy. He just had to go see him. … There’s a special bond between John and ThunderBug.”

“Every time he would come for a visit it was just fun and normal,” Nicole said. “And we crave normalcy as medical parents. And it just gave us that little bit of hope that we needed to go on.”

Finally, in September 2025, after 16 long months in the hospital, John was discharged. And who was there to send him off? ThunderBug, of course.

“It was a pretty special moment that ThunderBug could not miss,” Farmer said.

John had to stay in quarantine for about a year after his discharge, but Nicole and Jordan always had a plan to take him to a Lightning game at the first chance they got.

That opportunity came on October 8 for the Lightning’s game against the Minnesota Wild at Benchmark International Arena. Originally, Nicole and Jordan had tickets to sit in the 300s section and just take in the game like any other family.

But when Lightning co-owner Doug Ostrover got wind of John’s story, thanks to a viral video that Nicole posted on social media, he invited the Reams to watch the game from his suite and even called the family to personally welcome them.

That night, John received the celebrity treatment. He met the players in the tunnel before warmups, rode the Zamboni during the game, and was even honored as the team’s “Honorary Bolt.”

“Every single department in the Lightning (organization) reached out and was like, ‘What can we do to make this special?’” Farmer said. “It was amazing. It just speaks to just how wonderful the Lightning organization is.”

In the suite, John got to reunite with his old pal ThunderBug, a meeting that was two years in the making.

And the two didn’t miss a beat.

“(John) remembered exactly who (ThunderBug) was, and it was super emotional,” Nicole said. “In the best way possible.”

“There was not a dry eye in that suite,” Farmer said. “ThunderBug’s included.”

The two danced and played together throughout the game, their first meeting outside of the hospital.

“I could talk all day about how amazing the Tampa Bay Lightning organization is,” Jordan said. “And ThunderBug is just absolutely amazing. ThunderBug won (2026 NHL Mascot of the Year) and it was just the most deserved award ever.

“It turned me from a big fan, and now it’s a full obsession,” Jordan added. “It’s all I pay attention to. And getting ThunderBug involved with (John’s) birthday and all of that just took my love and admiration for the Lightning even further.”

As for the family’s next Lightning game, while there are no plans to head back yet, they’ll almost certainly be back soon.

“It won’t be John’s only game this season,” Jordan said.

“(John) keeps asking to go back,” Nicole said. “But that night will hold me over for a long time. It was a hockey game but meant way more than that.”