The wait ends Thursday for the Tampa Bay Lightning and every other NHL team.
At 1 p.m. ET on July 16, the league will unveil the full 2026-27 regular-season schedule, giving Tampa Bay its first complete look at the road ahead.
Before that, the NHL will roll out the opening-night matchups on Wednesday, July 15. That announcement will air exclusively on ESPN in the United States and Sportsnet in Canada ahead of the 2026 ESPY Awards, which begin at 8 p.m.
ET on ABC.
The ESPYs will have a strong hockey presence, too. Among the NHL-related nominees is the 2026 United States men’s Olympic hockey team, up for Best Team. Lightning forward Jake Guentzel was part of the gold medal-winning roster that represented Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Tampa Bay’s schedule release comes after a 2025-26 season that helped fuel record-breaking league viewership. The Lightning’s Stadium Series game against the Boston Bruins in Tampa played a big role in that surge, becoming the most-viewed NHL regular-season game ever on cable, the most-watched Stadium Series game on cable and ESPN’s most-viewed NHL regular-season game on record.
Last season, the Lightning opened on Oct. 9 with a divisional game against the Ottawa Senators. This year will look different on the calendar, because the NHL is expanding the regular season from 82 to 84 games. Each team will add two more divisional games, pushing the league-wide total to 1,344 games.
That earlier start also means a shorter preseason ramp-up. Tampa Bay will play four preseason games, beginning with two against the Nashville Predators on Sept. 20 and then two against the Florida Panthers.
The Lightning’s preseason slate will end on Sept. 26.
In Other News...
NHL Insider Pushes Back On One Growing Lightning Fear
The Lightnings latest early playoff exit has naturally raised the usual questions about how much runway this core really has left, but Elliotte Friedman is pushing back on the idea that the window is closing. Tampa Bay still finished the 2025-26 season with a strong record, and the individual honors piled up again with Nikita Kucherov winning the Hart Trophy and Andrei Vasilevskiy taking home the Vezina, while Jake Guentzel and Brandon Hagel continued to give the roster the kind of support that keeps it in the contender tier.
Friedmans point is that there is still growth in this group, and that the Lightning have not necessarily hit their peak yet. He pointed to younger pieces as part of that optimism, including Sam OReilly, who is expected to begin 2026-27 with the Syracuse Crunch before trying to earn an NHL role, a reminder that Tampa Bays next push may depend as much on development as it does on the stars already in place. [Read more 🡒]
Why Steve Yzerman's Legacy Looks So Different Outside Tampa Bay
Steve Yzermans reputation in Tampa Bay was built on a simple formula: draft well, develop patiently and keep the roster stocked with enough young talent to sustain success. In Detroit, the same approach never produced the same kind of payoff. The Red Wings spent years trying to climb back into relevance under his watch, and the biggest question around his tenure has been why the blueprint that worked so cleanly with the Lightning did not translate when he was running the other side of the Atlantic.
Part of the answer sits in the draft board, where Detroit has not gotten enough impact help outside the first round and has been left waiting on several high picks to become difference-makers. The blue line has been another sore spot, even with Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson forming a promising top pair, and some of the roster-building decisions on defense have only sharpened the scrutiny. For a general manager whose Tampa Bay legacy still carries real weight, the contrast in Detroit is hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Fans Finally Have The 2026-27 Schedule They've Been Waiting For
The wait is over for Lightning fans looking ahead to the 2026-27 season, as the club released its regular-season schedule with a few familiar staples and a slightly expanded slate. Tampa Bay will play 84 games instead of the usual 82, with an even 42 at home and 42 on the road, and each Atlantic Division opponent will come around four times, splitting the matchups evenly between Amalie Arena and the road.
There is plenty for fans to circle already, starting with the first home game Oct. 3 against the Washington Capitals. The home calendar also brings some intriguing dates later in the year, and single-game tickets are set to go on sale Aug. 14, giving supporters their first real chance to start planning around a schedule that should shape the season well before puck drop. [Read more 🡒]