Lightning's home opener postponed due to Hurricane Milton

The Tampa Bay Lightning's home opener, originally scheduled for Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes, was postponed due to Hurricane Milton, the NHL announced Thursday.

A makeup date will be announced later.

A Tampa Bay preseason game scheduled for Oct. 7 against the Nashville Predators was also canceled due to the hurricane. It had already been rescheduled from Sept. 27 because of damage caused by Hurricane Helene.

The Lightning evacuated Florida on Monday night, arriving in Carolina early for the team's season opener on Friday against the Hurricanes.

"For us, there's a bigger picture," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said after Tuesday's practice in Carolina, according to NHL.com's Kurt Dusterberg. "Like I told our guys, we've got to get away. There are a lot of people in our town who haven't been able to get away. A lot of our thoughts are, 'OK, hopefully everybody is going to OK. What can we do when we get back to help everybody out that wasn't afforded the ability to get out like we did?'"

Tropicana Field, home of MLB's Tampa Bay Rays, had its roof shredded by Hurricane Milton on Wednesday night.

The Lightning's next scheduled home game is Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks.