Lightning Open Campaign Against Senators
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2025-26 season opens Thursday as they take on the Ottawa Senators at the newly renamed Benchmark International Arena.
The Lightning are one of the NHL’s most consistently competitive teams, having made the playoffs the last eight seasons. This season may be no different, Tampa enters with the second best odds to win the Eastern Conference among most major sportsbooks. But merely making the playoffs will not be satisfactory for the Lightning, which have gone down in the first round the last three years.
The keys to their success in recent years have been experience and retention. After winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, the Lightning have fought to keep the same core of players together to continue competing, a feat difficult in the modern salary cap era. The core of Victor Hedman, Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov and Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy has been on the team for over a decade, providing time for the roster to develop as a consistent unit. With an average age of 29, the Lightning boast the 10th oldest roster in the NHL, bringing great experience into the season.
Behind the bench, the Lightning gave coach Jon Cooper an extension this offseason, continuing the longest tenure of any coach in the NHL currently. Since Cooper took the helm late in the 2012-13 season, the Lightning have made the playoffs 11 of the 12 seasons that he has coached the entire year. Cooper’s winning ability is unprecedented, including being the fastest coach to reach 400 career wins in 2021. His extension is a weight off the shoulders of the Lightning front office that also reached extensions with forwards Yanni Gourde and Gage Goncalves this offseason, as well as backup goaltender Jonas Johansson.
But there are some new faces on the roster this year. Forwards Pontus Holmberg and Curtis Douglas joined the Bolts from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tucson Roadrunners. Phoenix Copley made the trip from Los Angeles to Tampa to be the Lightning’s third goalie.
The Lightning are coming off one of the strongest regular seasons in the league, averaging 3.56 goals per game. Along with the high-powered offense, the Lightning shined on special teams with their power play and penalty kill units being fifth and sixth in the league. Forwards Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point were the League’s top 2 goal scorers on the power play last year, and both are back for another season of dominating with a man advantage.
The 2025-26 season is an opportunity for the Lightning to bounce back after some underwhelming postseason performances in recent years. That effort begins Thursday against divisional opponent Ottawa.
Category: Hockey, NHL, Tampa Bay Lightning
