RECHARGE | STAY THE COURSE

[Music] six and one in the preseason. How do you going to take that to kind of carry over for a fast start? I’ve known teams in this league that have gone undefeated in the preseason, didn’t make the playoffs a year. So to win loss kind of irrelevant. Yeah, I think there’s a lot of things that are special. If anything sticks out, it’s our our grit and our tenacity that we’re going to come at it with the season. The preseason showed the Lightning have more depth than most people thought. Team feels like they’ll be one of the best. The question becomes, does it happen? Good evening, Bolts Nation. This is Paul Porter welcoming you back to Benchmark International Arena. What’s up, guys? Douglas, 25 years old, is going to make his NHL debut tonight. You know what? I don’t care how many years you’ve played in the league. Opening night’s always exciting. It is. It really is. You never sleep the night before. Tremendous energy. And you guys can feel it. You’ve lived this. Yeah. Opening night, there’s nothing like it. Thank you so much. No problem, big fella. For 31 teams, the season didn’t end the way you wanted it to. So, you’re just excited to get it going again. It’s what you’ve been waiting for. [Music] Opening night, an annual right of passage for the fans to welcome home their favorite faces and new ones, too. [Music] Like I said, it’s a lot of excitement built up. Whether win or lose, you want to play the right way and and support your teammates the right way. The newest face of the Bolts roster is 25-year-old Curtis Douglas. At 6’9, he’s one of the tallest players in the NHL. Now, both Nation, let’s welcome your 2526 MMA Lightning, Anthony Brandon Hegel. Kel, goender number 88, Andre Matelki. Alternate captain, defenseman number 27, Ryan Mcdana. [Music] Alternate captain forward number 86 Vikita and the captain number 77 Victor Hatman Station your 202526 Tampa Bay Lightning game one the first true test for the Lightning to put their training camp work ethic to the test. Let’s go. Keep it simple out there early on. Pucks on that. Get the net. Get it in. Get it out. Get out. Get it in. And here we go. This we expected. Doug’s first shift in the NHL. He’s got the right pump. 6’9 and down goes Nick. Douglas 69 242 25 years old. Welcome to the league Douglas off for holding. Holding cop in the left circle. Left circle. It’s in front for Bjorn scores. Power play goal and the Lightning have their first lead of the season. [Applause] Radish holds it in right point. Slips to Gensel. Right corner right took a point should score. Quick shot right [Music] heavy looking right for there was a quick whistle and now we get a little bit of oh jeez there’s a backhand shot there that was good shot two minor for tripping yeah well he knows I’m tying him up trying to center it little got in the way now a shot at the right Point score Dylan Cousins a power play goal for Ottawa. Liver St. Kuck for a shot. Save by Masowski. That is Kachchuck and Serelli. Little extra push. All reminders of this is game one of the NHL. Who’s teleing off? Now we have another [Music] two. Oh yeah. Bergie getting the boys going. You want that team toughness. When one guy’s in, we’re all in. Emily, why would I play this? Why would I play this? Only one good reason to in front off the crossar and it stays down and a nice hit from your strike. Good job to the slide. Score. What a shot. up. Zipped it past the glove of Lar are two for two on the power play and leads 3-1 leads it to the right circle. Break shoot save May rebound. Basilk at the side of the net covers it boy. Well chances early at both ends also goals at both ends. The Lightning do lead 3-1 after one. Clear Helen Zoo right point shot score. It went in fast never saw blue. We’re going blue. Oh my god, someone loves. [Applause] After charging out to a 3-1 first period lead, the Bolts surrender four consecutive goals to the Senators. The team’s struggles continue into their next game as they fall to the New Jersey Devils. Oh man. For the first time in the 13-year tenure of John Cooper, the Bolts begin the season 0 and2. Our standards, obviously, we know we have better, but it’s a sample size, you know, two games and now we got to go on the road and uh get points. The Lightning embark on their first road trip of the season, searching for both their first victory and Nikita Coutur’s 10,000th NHL career point. Come on, boys. Come on, boys. Come on, Mo. Have a start, bud. Turn it off. Here’s Gage Gonzalez on a counter cross the Bruins line. Left circle. Feeds it. Right circle. Gensel centers it. Score. Serelli. Great play, boys. Great play. Hey, nice. Good job, boys. All right, keep it down there. Out of the way. Go to the net. Fed down low to Gonzalz to Serelli scores. Nice finish. Great pass. Yes. Jackie Mo play. Puck is grabbed by Pete. Couldn’t clear. Helen Bozer feet in front. Homeberg. Oh, eyes in the back of it. You know, what a pass by Pis Holberg. [Music] Pisberg finds the loose p and tucks it home. Holy homie. Oh, they’re going to win their first year. What a game Jojo. What a game, brother. That’s it, fellas. Oh, hey, what’s up? Hey, you got him, Coochie. Good job, Tony. Good skate. Good battle. Good. Good job. Good speed, boys. Time to take your seat. Enjoy the show. Got a left point. Put it in front. Gel score. That look like a set play off the face off. Dice, boys. Everybody’s been asking you. Everybody’s been asking you now. The CS have tied the game at one. We’re good. We’re good. Let’s go. Let’s go. Good drop. Centerpoint. Headman. Yes. What a slide. So lighting twice had a onegoal lead. But to me, Ryan, the big takeaway is they came to a very tough building and we know they’re coming away at least with one point. [Music] No, Nikita. He will not play tonight due to illness. Come on. Hey, let’s go for it. No matter how hard I try, they finally break through. JJ Moser ties the game. [Applause] Pman is okay. Krav is not though. He’s still under the weather, so he’s going to miss both games this weekend. [Music] Cross by Mcdana open left circle shoot Mcdana drift toward the right corner centers and score. They they didn’t have enough push tonight. They didn’t have enough oomph in their game. They were trying and the Jackets get this game across the finish line. They beat the Lightning 3-2 in regulation. Back in Tampa Bay, the Lightning are afforded a few days to rest and regroup, providing defenseman JJ Moser with an opportunity to experience a bit of his homeland in his new hometown. That’s the real way to drink beer. [Music] The best. This one’s really good, too. It’s like Coca-Cola and some orange lemonade together. This also staple. Same as last time we had automat. So Swiss household always has machi and ottoman both together to put on the pasta. Tastes kind of like soy sauce in some way. A little salty. Very good. It’s funny how you like recognize they’re all like German things and then certain German things you have in Switzerland, too. But certain German things you just see they’re German, but you’ve never seen them cuz it’s Switzerland. Like we don’t have all the same stuff. like certain brands like Haribo we would have that but then Milka you know it’s kind of like second tier chocolate you know like German chocolate it’s kind of like ah and then you have other stuff where you’re like yeah I know it’s German but it’s not ah it’s not it you know then you see a couple Swiss things then you see Swiss thing and then you see German like close not all the same like this is this is actually good like that’s That’s I’m actually going to buy some of those. These are actually so good. I never This is actually good. Spaghetti. Best spaghetti. All right, let’s get some food. When I first looked at the menu, I was like, “Is this legit?” And then I go through here, I started reading, and then I’m like, “That’s basically a lot of American.” Like, that’s not legit at all. And then I read up top it says the American part of the menu. I’m like, “Ah, duh. Obviously.” So then I read the actual menu and it it is legit. Like there’s a lot of things that yeah remind me of home and German and Swiss kitchen is similar in some ways, a little bit different in others, but yeah, certainly uh a lot of things that I’m excited to to try. [Music] That’s sweet. That’s good. Let’s dole with spets as a side. I remember doing like homemade spat one time and I should get back onto it, but I did do it once to try it out. They’re like little pieces, but you make it out of a like out of a dough that’s kind of liquidy. So there’s a thing that’s kind of like a bigger kind of grater that you like put the dough through it. So then the little pieces come out and I didn’t have that. So I was basically like cutting with a knife the kind of almost liquidy kind of dough. So then the pieces were a little bit too big. But yeah, basically when you think about Switzerland, it’s like taking a little corner from Germany, taking a little corner from France, and taking a little corner from Italy and like putting that together as one country. But like even in Switzerland, the cultures are different because obviously Italian influence in the south, French influence from the west, and then German influence from the northeast. So then you kind of have like three different countries that share the culture with Germany, France, and Italy. So that’s why it’s similar, but then you have its own version of it because obviously it like changes over time and and you have Yeah. certain specialties or things that you only do in Switzerland and certain things that yeah, you you only do in Germany, but the culture it’s kind of similar because the language is similar and and all of that. That’s where it comes from. I feel halfway at home. I feel not 100% at home, but I feel at home 100%. Because there’s a lot of things that remind me of home and that are similar to to the way I grew up. See, that’s for example is a thing that is German. Like I have no recollection of that. I have no like this is completely German. It tastes like a hash brown. Bite of hash brown. It’s good though. But yeah, that’s that’s completely German for me. Like I cannot remember having eaten that when I was a kid. Whoa. Yeah. Come on in. Wo wo. All right. We’ve got Jagger snits. Added roo sauerkraut. How does that go that fast? We’re pretty good. And uh spit. Yeah, that reminds me of home. There you go. Enjoy. Thank you. That’s sauerkraut. And that’s ro. And then here you have the here you have the jagger schnitle with the mushrooms and the gravy sauce and the schnitle beneath it. [Applause] So good. That is absolutely home. Some normaly for Moser as the regular season start is not as fortuitous as he had hoped. That’s good. Real good. It for sure was strange. It was like, wait, you missed the season opener and you’re not even injured? That was kind of special. But then it goes fast. It’s two games and and then you’re right into it and yeah, you focus on on all the things that you have to do to prepare and and be ready when yeah, when you play your first game as well. These last couple of days helped for sure. I mean, yeah, obviously didn’t have the start that we wanted, but yeah, just resetting, getting back to the things that we have to focus on, the the things that are our weakness, are our strength that make us strong and and make us win games and and that’s it. And most of the time, it’s it’s getting back to work. It’s getting back to maybe a little bit of the more boring stuff, but yeah, just being being dialed in defensively, working working your butts off and and then trusting that the offensive output is is going to come naturally. [Music] It’s back to business at Benchmark International Arena where rookie Ford Dominic James is primed to make his NHL debut. Come on. Well, he really did stand out to us in preseason, didn’t he? The speed that he had, the awareness that he had. He showed a lot of what he can potentially be. It’s a great opportunity. Take a bino save man was empty and doc got a stick lifted by Hegelie holds feeds it in front shot score and they set it up perfectly. They’re down one nothing. Yeah, let’s go here. Let’s go. Circle gets back to one left then centers it center point shot. They got to score. Prop has really been making some dazzling plays tonight. against will tip the shot home. It’s 1-1. Let’s keep going here, boys. Keep that momentum here. [Applause] Let’s go, boys. Here. Bring the energy up. Cut his feet. Score. Ma. Yeah. What a pass from Coov. Unbelievable. He’s now one away from 1,00 left rebound. Cut off the post. What a remarkable goal that would have been. Here’s a better chance. Carolina up the middle of the ice shoot. [Applause] That’s the third time this year the Lightning have been tied in a game after two periods and surrendered a third period goal and they come away with nothing. [Music] Saturday afternoon in the Bay making his return [Applause] to begin. Another rookie lap and another chance for Cooerov to reach the 1,00 point plateau. Here’s Gel. Puts it in by Jake. [Applause] All right, guys. Hey play haggy [Music] off the drive shot scores littleber quick up Kov across the blue line to go to point point point Sanders it go there it is Nikita Karov 1,000 points the Lightning players scream off the bench to congratulate Good draw. Where is he? Oh boy. Good. All that great work. Oh boy. Only the second Tampa Bay Lightning to ever do it and he did it faster than Steven Stampos did. He’s relishing it. He doesn’t ever give himself much time to enjoy anything personal. It’s really good to see him do this. Something I never thought I would preach. You know, I’m really honored, you know, fortunate to have uh great teammates along the way. And um you know without them I wouldn’t be here and also without the fan support and you know they they’ve been a huge part of it and I’m just really blessed. Anthony Silly taps it in and on this play Victor Headmond is going to pick up career point number 800. [Music] [Applause] The Ducks fight back and equalize the game of three goals a piece that an angle center points are going to try to move it quickly but there you go big big and the lightning win it for three [Music] test you’re up 3-1 one probably a bad break on the second one. Whatever they get to. Yeah. Like we’re sitting there areing upset. We are. But I bet you like you know how we had made mistakes in games. We were kind of rolling on and then the other team just took over. We went down when they got that third goal. I don’t know if they have scoring chance after that. I don’t know if they do. And we probably had nine. So that’s that feeling you had when an adversity hit hurt or hit. Adversity sucks, but it hit and you went the other way with it. That’s the way you got to go. And then that last 3 minutes was a clinic of how to kill out for the hockey. That was uh that was outstanding. The Lightning will look to keep the good vibes rolling versus Vegas. Right. So Celli highlight Gensel Headman shoots save rebound. Eagle scores and Brian Hegel gets his first goal of the season. [Applause] Peter is checked by Hegel. Twoon one the other way. Good job and Hegel in the left wing. Cross the ball in left circle. Right circle Hegel back for Kudra. Score. What a lightning strike and overtime and the Bolts win it. [Music] in front scores [Music] with his first goal of the season. across the line to Stew. High slot holds Du the first inning jungle for Charlie Waru. Nada Kra is going to seal the deal. Very impressive win tonight for the Lightning on the road. Melania have won three in a row to finish this 10ame segment with 10 points. [Applause] Celebrating legacy milestones is a part of the Lightning’s DNA. And for Cooch, it’s his first ever on ice ceremony. A legacy born from an unrelenting work ethic matched with an incurable hunger for winning and an undeniable drive for becoming one of the best. Number 86, Nikia C. Joining us on the ice, Nikita’s wife, Anastasia, and children, Max and Alisa. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Congratulations on 1,000 NHL points. The slot takes that center. Even if you’re still dot line but you’re going more so you can one tap that in there. Do you want to stay home too? So we just if we come support the puck we’re going to have them all night you know. Circle it is Gonzaggel centers it. Oh almost in. They said no goal. Is it what? Look at it. Why aren’t you looking at it? Oh, that’s in the net. Hey, after a few determined that the puck fully crossed the line, we have a year and a half. Year and a half. Year and a half. That’s a right point. Shot score. And the Stars have tied the game at one. Poor guy, boys. Hey, keep going. Keep going. They don’t play the whole game. [Applause] for took a hard check from Hegel will have overtime. Another point for the White Right away on this can’t keep it. Brandon is checked by Celli. Sireelli bumps it forward and chases Anthony Celli down the right wing. Sell trying to cut it alone. Celli is checked. That’s it. score back. He wins the lead over continue to build on that. We have the speed in the stress room and the team in the stress room. We have a lot of belief in this room. We’re going to continue to do this and be a really big test going on the road here. In most Americans restaurant, I couldn’t even take a seat in that time that I got food here. Like, do you have do you have free tables? Yeah. Give us 15 minutes. I see 100 free tables. Like, ah, 15 minutes wait time. My bad. My bad. Gent. Where’s Gen Z? [Music] Pointer was so funny, man. My pointer. Hey, you or what? You didn’t know you had to get out there. I didn’t know when I was going. Got everything. We got good old I don’t even know how you call this, but you know what it is. Hey. And then you have machi which is together with aroma. Two things every household has to have in Switzerland. And then you have spatula. Those are then you have met mix. I talked about that before. Right. Yeah. And then you have different spatula. And then you have yeast. Fresh yeast. Maybe it’s in yeast but same thing. And then you have the original, the best trophy fruit from Haribo. You have the Haribo kaxi frogs and you have the Haribo sour hummus. That’s it. That’s all there is.

Go behind the scenes as the Tampa Bay Lightning begin their 2025-26 campaign, J.J. Moser finds a taste of home in Tampa and Nikita Kucherov accomplishes his 1000th career point milestone.

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