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Lightning Are Set For Trip To Prague To Open 2008-09 Season

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 27, 2008

ATLANTA - The Lightning will begin next season with a hop across the pond and a jump into the European hockey scene.

Tampa Bay will open the 2008-09 season in Prague, Czech Republic, with a pair of games against the New York Rangers as part of an international doubleheader that also features a pair of games between Ottawa and Pittsburgh in Stockholm, Sweden.

The announcement comes on the heels of the success of the start of the 2007-08 season, which featured a pair of games between Anaheim and Los Angeles in London at the end of September.

"We are honored that we got the call in training camp and were asked to participate in this," Lightning president Ron Campbell said.

The games will be played on Oct. 5 and 6 at 18,000-seat Sazka Arena, which opened in the spring of 2004. Preliminary plans call for Tampa Bay to leave for Europe on Sept. 29 to acclimate the players to the time differences. Should the Lightning play an exhibition game in another European city - Berlin has been mentioned, but there are other possibilities - the team would leave North America sooner.

Because Tampa Bay, which held training camp in Austria before the 1998 season, will be losing a home game, the team will be compensated financially for the lost revenues.

It is believed that because the Lightning, along with the other three teams traveling to Europe, will open training camp earlier than the rest of the league, they will have a home-and-home preseason series against Pittsburgh and New York. That has not been finalized.

"We are very excited and look forward to what should be a fantastic experience for our entire organization," Lightning general manager Jay Feaster said.

The new director of the NHL Players' Association thinks the league jumped the gun in announcing the plan, because the NHLPA has not given its approval at this point.

"If they want the Players' Association to be a true business partner, then they have to include us in discussions about these matters at the earliest stages," Paul Kelly told the Associated Press on Saturday. "We shouldn't read about it in the press, and we shouldn't find about it after the fact."

Kelly said the NHLPA was informed of the plans on Friday and was asked to give the union's blessing. The association expressed some reservations about logistical issues, including travel, accommodations and the schedule.

Assuming the plans are finalized, there is excitement among the Lightning about starting the season in Europe.

"I love it, I think the guys are excited," Lightning center Vinny Lecavalier said. "It's something new, it's something different. I think going to Europe, I'm always up for that. It's another great experience, and I think it's going to be good for the game."

For Marty St. Louis, it's a chance for the team to break up the daily training camp grind.

"I think it will definitely break the monotony of our training camp," he said. "We've been out in Brandon at the Ice Sports Forum for I don't know how long. So to go somewhere else, to open the season somewhere else, I think it will be good."

The Lightning also said in a release that they will announce a travel package for fans to purchase through the team's travel partners in the coming weeks.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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