Tampa Bay Lightning will broadcast on national TV 11 times this season

The Tampa Bay Lightning will have 11 games broadcast on national television during the upcoming 2019-20 season.

The 2019-20 season is right around the corner and everyone here in the Bolts Nation is gearing up to watch the Tampa Bay Lightning take the ice. There are just 55 days between now and the Lightning Home Opener and things are really starting to heat up.

The Lightning announced earlier today the team will have quite a few games broadcast nationally in the upcoming 2019-20 season. According to the team’s Twitter account, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be broadcast nationally on the NBC Sports Network 11 times this season.

All the action kicks off fairly quickly this season. The first game to be aired nationally is set for October 15 as the Lightning takes on the Montreal Canadiens in game five of a six-game road trip set to conclude on Thursday, October 17 at the TD Garden in Boston.

There are two more games in the month of October that will air on NBC Sports. The first of these games is October 23 when the Bolts battle Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Amalie Arena in Tampa. The second is October 29 when the Lightning takes on the New York Rangers in the Big Apple.

After the holidays, the broadcast schedule cools off a little bit but certainly concludes 2020 with a bang. There are three games set to be broadcast on NBCSN in January, starting with the Lightning’s January 16 battle against the Minnesota Wild. Next up is the Lightning’s contest against the Dallas Stars on January 27.

Two days later, things pick up once again as the Bolts take on the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center in LA. This is where things start to get interesting. The Lightning is set for a Stanley Cup Playoffs rematch as they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets on February 10. The final nationally broadcast game of the 2019-20 season will be on March 3 as the Bolts battle the big, bad Boston Bruins at the Amalie Arena.

It’s pretty safe to say no one here in the Bolts Nation is fond of the commentary provided by the announce team at NBC Sports. In fact, many Lightning fans have taken to muting their televisions and playing the radio broadcast on 970WFLA just to avoid having to hear it.

In any case, national exposure is always a good thing for a hockey team. Especially one where ice is a rarity and white sand beaches remain open pretty much all year round.

After the Tampa Bay Lightning’s record-breaking performance last season, the eyes of the hockey world are going to be on the Bolts Nation to see if the Lightning can live up to the standard they set for themselves. Vice President and General Manager Julien BriseBois has done a decent job thus far of setting the team up for success. Now, if the team could just hurry up and sign Brayden Point, everything would be right in the world.