NHL
The Lightning's Anthony Cirelli and Bruins' Charlie McAvoy arrive at the Stadium Series dressed as Buccaneers and Patriots — sort of. Mike Carlson / Getty Images
TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman said the easy choice for his team’s entrance to Sunday’s Stadium Series game against the Boston Bruins would have been to dress like pirates.
The annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival is this weekend, after all, bringing 500,000 people to Tampa Bay for a fake invasion of the bay.
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But in the end, the Lightning went another route, showing up at Raymond James Stadium in creamsicle throwback Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniforms.
Lightning players popped off a trolley and paid homage to their local NFL team, whose stadium they’re using for the 45th outdoor game in NHL history. Putting it over the top, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield (wearing a Lightning jersey) led the team in, with offensive lineman Tristan Wirfs holding a boom box over his shoulder as a hype man.
Mayfield has been a presence at Lightning games, including paying a visit after Thursday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.
“Obviously, a lot of guys are friends with them,” Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “We support each other. This is such a great sports town. All the teams here support each other and have relationships with one another. A couple guys texted him, threw the idea out to him, and he said, ‘No problem. Let me just get back from the Bahamas.’ It meant the world to us that those guys wanted to lead us in.”
The Bruins also went the football route — kind of — dressing like patriots from the American Revolution. The Patriots, of course, are New England’s NFL team, and will play in the Super Bowl next Sunday. The team asked a local costume designer to help it with its pregame threads.
“Bring something Bostonian tied to Boston,” Bruins’ Nikita Zadorov said. “Boston is known as a really historical city in the United States. So we decided to dress up as patriots from the 17th and 16th century, giving respect to the Founding Fathers of America. Also it’s good ties to our football team. We’re at a football stadium. So I thought it played out pretty well.”
Hedman noted how much less padding the NFL uniforms boast, which gave him and his teammates even more respect for football players taking part in such a physical sport.
“It’s crazy to see them go 100 miles an hour against each other,” he said.
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Lightning coach Jon Cooper joked that while they have many big players on their team, they wouldn’t be “big” football players.
Bruins coach Marco Sturm gave his team rave reviews: “I thought they looked pretty good. They put a lot of work in over the last couple weeks there. They had a lot of guys coming to the rink in between games to get fitted. I think they look pretty sharp today.”
Around 65,000 fans were in attendance for Sunday’s game, which was an outdoor game unlike any other the NHL has put on.
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