TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning will open their 15^th Anniversary National Hockey League season with a playoff rematch against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, October 4 at the St. Pete Times Forum. Southeast Division rivals Atlanta (Saturday, October 6) and Florida (Wednesday, October 10) will also visit the St. Pete Times Forum in the 2007-08 season’s first week before the Lightning take on the Panthers in Sunrise on Saturday, October 13 for their road opener.

Of the Lightning’s 41 home dates at the St. Pete Times Forum, 27 will take place on Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. The majority of start times for home games will be 7:30 p.m. with Friday night games once again starting at 8 p.m.  

The Lightning will play in only 11 back-to-back situations in 2007-08 and won’t play on consecutive nights at home the entire season. Tampa Bay’s regular season concludes on Saturday, April 5 at Atlanta, and the team will play its final eight games against Southeast Division rivals.

“Our players, coaches and staff are all beaming with optimism as we look to begin our 15^th Anniversary Season in pursuit of our fifth straight postseason appearance,” said Ron Campbell, president of the Lightning and the St. Pete Times Forum. “We have raised the expectation bar with four playoff berths, two division titles and a Stanley Cup Championship during the past four years and we look forward to continued success in 2007-08. We encourage fans to secure their season ticket or mini-season ticket plans soon as demand continues to increase for Lightning tickets.”

The best way to get tickets is through a Lightning ticket plan with full-season tickets starting as low as $659 and 10-game mini-plans starting as low as $99.  A single-game ticket on-sale date will be announced at a later time.  For more information regarding ticket packages and pricing call 813.301.6600.  For group information call 813.301.6900.

For the 2007-08 season, each club in the Eastern Conference will once again play the other clubs in its division a total of eight times. Each club will play the other clubs in its conference four times, and each club will play a single game against two divisions from the other conference. Tampa Bay will travel to face the Western Conference’s Central Division (Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Nashville, St. Louis) while the Northwest Division’s teams (Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Minnesota, Vancouver) will visit the St. Pete Times Forum. The Calgary Flames will play in Tampa for the first time since Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals when they visit on Thursday, December 13.

Among the highlights of the home schedule are four games against the 2007 Southeast Division champion Atlanta Thrashers (Oct. 6, Oct. 20, Nov. 3, March 31), four meetings with the cross-state rival Florida Panthers (Oct. 10, Nov. 7, Feb. 2, March 25) and four visits by Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals (Nov. 16, Dec. 15, Feb. 16, March 27).  The Lightning’s 2007 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal opponent, New Jersey, visits the St. Pete Times Forum for the opener on October 4 and again on November 24.

At the Forum

The Lightning will play host to a pair of four-game home-stands and one five-game home-stand this season. The five-game stand is January 22 (Edmonton), January 24 (Ottawa), January 29 (Buffalo), January 31 (Vancouver) and February 2 (Florida). 

On the road

The 2007-08 season will include 12 road trips of two or more games and a total of 10 single-game road trips. The longest Lightning trip of the season will be a four-game journey from January 1-8 (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, NY Rangers).

Back-to-back

The Lightning will play 11 sets of back-to-back games this season, seven with both games on the road, one with the first game at home and three with the first game on the road. The first set of back-to-back games will be at Washington on Wednesday, October 24 and home against Philadelphia on Thursday, October 25.

 

( 2007-08 TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING SCHEDULE )