The NHL announced on Wednesday that Grammy Award-Winning Country Music Superstar Tim McGraw will headline the 2026 NHL Stadium Series game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins. McGraw will play during the first intermission.
The outdoor game will be played at Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on February 1, marking the first time in NHL history that an outdoor game will be played in a football stadium in the state of Florida.
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In preparation, a tent will be built over the ice and remain in place until just before puck drop, protecting the surface from any potential weather issues. The process has been compared to a Super Bowl halftime show, with the setup rolled out and then taken down with precise timing.
“Until we take it down, you won’t see how the field is going to be decorated, because we’re going to basically do that on wheels and get it out,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. “It’ll all be designed, but it won’t be put out there until before the game.”
If the weather mirrors standard January conditions in Tampa, around 65 degrees with no rain, their plan should be a success.
“Weather is a concern. The biggest concern for us in these games is generally humidity and rain and the sun, but we’ll play late enough in the day, so the sun won’t be an issue. If you remember when we played in Lake Tahoe during COVID, it was in the 20s or 30s, but the sun was destroying the ice during the day.”