Lightning, Bruins to clash in the outdoor chill of Florida

The action should be hot on the ice between the rival Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning, and even Mother Nature will oblige to make Florida the frosty center of the hockey world on Sunday night.

Wintry conditions, with overnight temperatures in the low 30s, will be welcomed in the Sunshine State when the Lightning host the Bruins in a 2026 NHL Stadium Series contest at the outdoor home of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It will be the second outdoor game at Florida in a month. The New York Rangers beat the two-time Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers 5-1 on Jan. 2 in the Miami Marlins' retractable-dome ballpark.

"Outdoor hockey, I think you can't beat it," Bruins forward Casey Mittelstadt said. "That's pretty much what I do for All-Star break every year."

The NHL's two stadium events in Florida should come as no surprise. Five of the past six Stanley Cup Finals have featured a representative from the state, with the Panthers and Lightning each winning it all twice.

Tampa Bay leads the Detroit Red Wings in the Atlantic Division by two points with three games in hand and is getting key contributions from the usual suspects.

Nikita Kucherov is third in the NHL in scoring with 82 points in 48 games. Brandon Hagel has 25 goals and 49 points in 47 games, while Jake Guentzel also has averaged over a point a game with 55, while skating in all 52 Lightning games.

Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy ranks second in the NHL with 24 wins in 34 games, just one win behind Utah's Karel Vejmelka.

With Thursday's 4-1 home victory over the Winnipeg Jets, the Lightning improved to 16-0-2 in the past 18 games.

"We need to do this to compete in this division," Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. "I don't think I've ever seen our division this tight -- actually any division as the Atlantic has been."

Winners of two straight, Boston comes in as the No. 2 wild-card team in the Eastern Conference behind the Montreal Canadiens. Florida and the Columbus Blue Jackets slot eight points behind the Bruins, who have been short-handed.

Boston's top two centers, Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha, did not join the club on its trip to Florida because of upper-body injuries.

In his first game this season, pivot Matt Poitras stepped in for Lindholm in the Bruins' 6-3 home win Thursday over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Over 11 minutes of ice time, the 21-year-old Poitras posted five shots and one penalty while centering the fourth line.

"I think the mindset was not to kind of sit and wait," Poitras said of his playing time. "For me, it was just go down (to Providence of the AHL) and not worry about what's going on up here. ... Worry about where I am."

Boston coach Marco Sturm agreed.

"I think first of all, he's got to be himself," Sturm said Thursday. "I don't need to see anything special out of him. I want to see him go up and down and play really good defensively."

The Bruins' Fraser Minten, who will be the top-line center Sunday, has 16 points and is plus-15 over his past 15 games.

Morgan Geekie leads Boston with 30 goals, while David Pastrnak has 22.