The Tampa Bay Lightning will not play their home opener Saturday as planned.
The NHL said Thursday that Saturday’s Lightning game against the Carolina Hurricanes was postponed “amid recovery efforts in the Tampa Bay area from the impact of Hurricane Milton.”
No makeup date was immediately announced. The Lightning will open the season at Carolina on Friday, and travelled there earlier this week to get out ahead of the storm.
The change means that Tampa Bay’s home opener is now set for Tuesday against Vancouver.
The Lightning also had their pre-season finale, which was to have been played this past Monday against Nashville, called off because of Milton’s looming arrival. That game was originally set to be played last month and was postponed then because of Hurricane Helene.
Milton was the second hurricane to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in the span of two weeks, preceded by Helene, which flooded streets and homes on that same side of the state and left at least 230 people dead across the South.
The Tampa Bay Rays said it may take weeks to fully assess how much damage was done to Tropicana Field, which saw its roof ripped to shreds by the force of Hurricane Milton as the deadly storm barreled across much of Florida.