{"id":470176,"date":"2026-02-24T21:41:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/470176\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T21:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:41:13","slug":"lightning-return-to-practice-following-olympic-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/470176\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning return to practice following Olympic break"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Olympic break is over, which means the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey is back.<\/p>\n

None of the Lightning players who played in the medal round of the Olympics in Milan, Italy, were on the ice for Tuesday\u2019s practice \u2014 that includes Jake Guentzel, Brandon Hagel and Erik Cernak.<\/p>\n

Most of the team got to sit back and enjoy a thrilling gold medal game between the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019ve got relationships on both sides there,\u201d defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. \u201cYou go through a mix of emotions. We watched it, can\u2019t help be entertained by that kind of hockey. The real thought is, \u2018Why did it take so long to get back to playing in the Olympics. Best-on-best. If that\u2019s the product that it showed, the passion guys played with, how honored they are to represent their country. It\u2019s great we were able to make that happen for the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lightning captain Victor Hedman, who played for Sweden, took the family to the Milan Cortina winter games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids got to see some now and focus on something else instead of hockey for a couple of days,\u201d Hedman said. \u201cThey got their first snow experience. Seeing the joy on their face made it easy for me to flip the switch as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay hit the Olympic break on a five-game winning streak and some decent separation in the Atlantic Division. It will now be a sprint to the finish with 27 games in 50 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put ourselves in a great spot. The way we played, the consistency we\u2019ve had,\u201d Hedman said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun to be a part of. Just keep doing what we did before the break. We played a lot of good hockey. The good thing about the break is that we get some bodies back. Guys are getting closer to playing again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forward Brayden Point is expected to make his return from a knee injury when the Lightning host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Kyle Burger

For Tampa Bay 28 Sports Anchor Kyle Burger, pride in our local teams goes beyond college and the pros. Sports connect us as communities and families. You can connect with Kyle to share your passion for your local athletes below.
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<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg rally marks 4 years since Russian attack on Ukraine<\/p>\n

Former Citrus County Sheriff Charles \u201cCharlie\u201d Dean Sr., who served the county for 16 years and later represented Florida in the Legislature, died on Monday.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg rally marks 4 years since Russian attack on Ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Olympic break is over, which means the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey is back. None…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[7136,7137,5,189,4,2602,540,32946,92,7138,5168,5167,7139,7140],"class_list":{"0":"post-470176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-abc-action-news","9":"tag-abc-action-news-sports","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-lightning","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-tampa-bay","15":"tag-tampa-bay-28","16":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","17":"tag-tampa-bay-sports","18":"tag-tampabay","19":"tag-tampabaylightning","20":"tag-wfts","21":"tag-wfts-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116127786018786404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470176","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=470176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}