TAMPA – Damon Dominguez stood near the rows of fold-up chairs, the kind of you find under a beach umbrella or lining a youth soccer field on the weekend.
The Tampa Bay Lightning fans seated in them couldn’t snag a ticket to Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night, so they did the next best thing: Arriving hours before faceoff, and watching the action on two large screens in the shadow of Amalie Arena, in a place the team calls "Thunder Alley." The 7:15 p.m. start meant extra sunshine on a beautiful evening, as fans packed in between statues of Dave Andreychuk lifting the Cup in 2004 and Phil Esposito, the franchise's patron saint, which some fans rub for luck.