TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Tampa Bay Lightning hit the ice for their home opener tonight at Benchmark International Arena.<\/p>\n
Getting bounced from the playoffs in the first round in back-to-back seasons has the team motivated this year. <\/p>\n
What can we expect from the Bolts this season? Spectrum Sports 360 reporter Katherine Smith sat down for a one-on-one interview with Victor Hedman where he talks about being a captain, Stanley Cups and the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Lightning open their season at home against the Ottowa Senators
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The Bolts have been bounced in the first round of the playoffs in back-to-back seasons by the Florida Panthers
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Captain Victor Hedman said the team has a Stanley Cup run in them this season<\/p>\n
QUESTION: This is the second season you\u2019re going to be wearing the C on your chest. What does that honor mean to you?<\/p>\n
VICTOR HEDMAN: It means a lot, obviously. To represent the community and the team and being a team\u2019s leader its a great feeling. So, I don\u2019t take that for granted one bit. But like I said before last year, it\u2019s going to be a team effort. And we have a great leadership group in that room, so they make my job easy. It\u2019s obviously a lot more responsibility on you when you wear that C, but like I said, it\u2019s a great honor and it\u2019s nothing I take for granted. So every time you play in the NHL you get to wear the C, it\u2019s a cool feeling.<\/p>\n
QUESTION: Five year anniversary since you won your first Stanley Cup. Four years since you won your second. Is there a Stanley Cup run in this team this season?<\/p>\n
VICTOR HEDMAN: 100 percent. We have all the tools for it and we\u2019ve got great depth, phenomenal goaltending. So, we got all the tools in the toolbox to make a big run again. But that\u2019s very far ahead. We gotta make sure we have a great start to the season first and then get things moving.<\/p>\n
QUESTION: What do you like most about the team this year?<\/p>\n
VICTOR HEDMAN: I mean I love our team chemistry. Our core group has been together for a long time. And the new guys coming in fit in right away. So, our chemistry, but just our determination too to be a good as we can in all areas of the game, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to set us apart.<\/p>\n
QUESTION: I\u2019m going to say a bad word, Florida Panthers. These two teams do not like each other. The way that your season ended last year, how much is that motivating the team this year?<\/p>\n
VICTOR HEDMAN: I mean motivation comes from different aspects, but it\u2019s two years in a row that we\u2019e been knocked out in the first round by them. So, we know that\u2019s going to keep being brought up throughout the year. But, like I said, this is a new season and we\u2019re looking ahead. But like I said, that\u2019s one of the teams we have to get through to get to the ultimate goal, so yeah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Tampa Bay Lightning hit the ice for their home opener tonight at Benchmark International Arena.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[1249,2336,5,22065,40,4,60,43,14,104,718,187,92,5467],"class_list":{"0":"post-233379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-app-sports","10":"tag-florida-sports","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-katherine-smith","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-nhl-playoffs","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-stanley-cup","18":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","19":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl","20":"tag-tampa","21":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","22":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115344526795122993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}