Welcome to the last 82-game season for the Tampa Bay Lightning for the foreseeable future. Starting next season the league moves to an 84-game season (cool, it’ll probably mean another back-to-back for the Bolts) to boost the revenues a bit. For the second year in a row, there is a bit of a compression to the schedule as the NHL makes way for the Olympics in February.
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2025-26 season officially gets underway at home on Thursday October 9th at 7:00 PM as their expansion siblings, the Ottawa Senators come into town. It’s almost non-stop hockey (well except for that long break in February) until they wrap the season up with another home game.