Lightning's return home to Tampa for Game 7 is no easy trip

The Lightning's return to Tampa on Saturday took a detour when the team's charter flight from Montreal was diverted to Sarasota after a round of severe storms prevented the team from landing as scheduled at Tampa International Airport.

The Lightning play the Canadiens in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series Sunday night at Benchmark International Arena.

Because of the bad weather, the plane was redirected to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, where it taxied on the runway. The team waited out the front and flew back into Tampa about 2 ½ hours after originally scheduled.

"It's a disruption, but by three hours or two hours or something like that," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "You've got plans and work to do and things like that. But in the end, it didn't disrupt the players' card games or YouTube watching or whatever they were doing."

The Canadiens' team flight also was diverted Saturday. They were rerouted to Fort Lauderdale, where they spent two hours before flying to Tampa. They didn't arrive at Tampa International until 7:10 p.m., nearly three hours after their scheduled arrival.

Second-round slate set

If the Lightning win Sunday, they will open the second round Wednesday in Buffalo.

The NHL announced the second-round schedule Saturday, and a potential Lightning-Sabres series would open with Games 1 and 2 Wednesday and Friday at KeyBank Center. Both would be 7 p.m. starts and national TNT broadcasts.

The series would move to Tampa for Games 3 and 4 Sunday (7 p.m.) and May 12 (TBD). Both of those games would air nationally on ESPN.

If necessary, Game 5 would be May 14 in Buffalo (TNT), Game 6 May 16 in Tampa (ESPN or ABC) and Game 7 May 18 in Buffalo (ESPN). Times for those games will be announced later.

The Lightning were 1-3-0 against the Sabres in the regular season. Their 8-7 loss March 8 in Buffalo - which included 15 goals and 102 penalty minutes - was widely viewed as one of the best games of the season.

Cooper gives it back to crowd

Cooper has made it clear how much he enjoys the atmosphere in Montreal, saying the only thing he doesn't like about Bell Centre is that coaches have to walk on the ice from the visiting tunnel to the bench.

But following the Lightning's overtime win Friday in Game 6, Cooper seemed to relish a victorious walk from the bench to the tunnel. The ESPN television broadcast showed Cooper smiling to the crowd, putting one finger up and saying, "One more," as he walked off the ice.

Asked about the interaction after the team returned to Tampa on Saturday, Cooper smiled and said, "I'm not sure I should address this."

But he did.

"Did anybody see what the crowd was doing to me?" Cooper said.

"You can only take so much," he said, smiling. "Yeah, at first I thought they were saying I was No. 1."

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This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 9:34 PM.