Hurricane Milton forces Lightning to postpone home opener

While Florida begins to recover from its second hurricane in less than two weeks, the Lightning and the NHL opted to postpone the team’s home opener against the Hurricanes at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Saturday.

Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm, leaving 3 million Floridians without power. 

“The Tampa Bay Lightning’s game on Saturday versus the Carolina Hurricanes at AMALIE Arena has been postponed as the Tampa Bay region recovers from the effects of Hurricane Milton,” The team said in a statement. “A make up date will be announced at a later time.”

There hadn’t been any reports of damage to Amalie Arena after the storm passed, but nearby Tropicana Field saw its roof get torn off.

The same happened with MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, according to the Tampa Times. 

TSN reported that if there is any damage to the hockey arena, it isn’t expected to be as significant as what happened at Tropicana Field. 

“The home of the Major League baseball team there unfortunately took a huge hit. It doesn’t sound like there’s anywhere near that kind of damage to Amalie Arena, so I don’t expect that will be significant part of the decision-making,” Johnston said before the game was postponed. “But the storm did hit a little harder in St. Petersburg. So, don’t have a full report on exactly the state of Amalie Arena at this point and time, but it doesn’t sound like it got through the storm in too bad of shape.”

The Lightning open their season with a game on Friday against the Hurricanes in North Carolina and won’t play a game at Amalie Arena until Tuesday when they host the Canucks. 

Follow the latest from The Post on Hurricane Milton:

The team had departed the area ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall, and they will return to Tampa after the game on Friday night, according to the Tampa Times.