The Tampa Bay Lightning are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They have one Stanley Cup championship in their history, in 2004. The team is commonly referred to as the Bolts, and the nickname is used on their current third jersey. They play their home games at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa.
In the late 1980s, the NHL...
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The Tampa Bay Lightning are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They have one Stanley Cup championship in their history, in 2004. The team is commonly referred to as the Bolts, and the nickname is used on their current third jersey. They play their home games at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa.
In the late 1980s, the NHL announced that it would expand. Two rival groups from the Tampa/St. Petersburg area decided to bid for a franchise: a St. Petersburg-based group fronted by future Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes owners Peter Karmanos and Jim Rutherford, and a Tampa-based group led by two Hall of Famers – Phil Esposito and his brother Tony.
On paper, it looked like the Karmanos/Rutherford group was the frontrunner. Not only was the Karmanos/Rutherford group better financed, but one of Esposito's key backers, the Pritzker family, had backed out a few...
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