When most people think of Florida and the Tampa Bay region of the coast, they think of hot sun, warm sandy beaches, and Bush Gardens. While Tampa has loads of attractions, making it a top-notch vacation destination for families and couples, they also have a great bunch of professional sports teams. And what some people might find even more surprising is that despite the hot and humid weather that is characteristic of Tampa Bay, they have a professional ice hockey team, called the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Tampa Bay Lightning professional ice hockey team is a member of the National Hockey League (NHL), in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference. The team is affectionately nicknamed the Bolts and wears uniforms in team colors blue, silver, black and white. Their alternative jerseys have the Bolts nickname on the front. Home games are played at St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa and they won one Stanley Cup Championship, which was in 2004.

Just like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team, the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team represents the Tampa Bay region of Florida that includes Bradenton, Clearwater, Tampa, and St. Petersburg. There is no one city or town called Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay Lightning is a pretty new ice hockey team, named after Tampa being known as the “Lightning Capital of North America.”

On October 7, 1992, the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team exhibited their skills in Tampa’s small Expo Hall. The team beat the Chicago Blackhawks 7-3, with four of those goals by Chris Kontos. Within a month, the team was at the top of the Campbell Conference’s Norris Division. They had some very long road trips, which took its toll on the players, and finished the season in last place. The Bolts moved into a brand new arena, the Ice Palace, later re-named St. Pete Times Forum, but they still were not making the scores they needed. The team had some financial troubles in the late 1990s, changed owners a couple times, before finally seeing improvements during the 2001 – 2002 season. In 2004 the Bolts had their chance in the Stanley Cup, and won! The next few years were devastatingly awful for the team. Players and coaches came and went, but it wasn’t until 2010 that there was once again a team that showed promise; they were a competitive team to play against, but fell out of a playoff spot in March. The Tampa Bay Lightning finished the 2010 season with 34-36-12.