TAMPA, Fla. — Amalie Arena, the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning, is quiet now. But in a few months, the building will be electric with Bolts fans rooting on their team.
“It’s a pretty well-oiled machine here at the Tampa Bay Lightning,” Lightning in-game host Greg Wolf said.
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“It’s everything that you experience in the bowl on game night,” Wolf said.
Wolf is in his 19th season as the team’s in-game host. He’s part of the roughly 60-person crew responsible for everything you see, hear, and feel on a game day.
“It’s from the moment you walk into Thunder Alley, you interact with Stephen, our in-game host, from public address announcer Paul Porter, to National Anthem singer Sonya Bryson, to organist Kristoph, myself, the Blue Crew, just the entire environment at Amalie Arena. All of that gets capsulated and put together and presented to the league,” Wolf said.
That also includes our own morning anchor Deiah Riley, who hosts the Lightning’s Community Hero segment at every home game.
“It is way more than just a game on the ice,” Wolf said. “It is an absolute experience. It’s not just coming in and watching the game, like you said, it’s experiencing the fans, the fun engaging things that we have in between the plays, the player pieces, vignettes, the contests.”
The Lightning were finalists for the award in 2022 and 2024, falling short to the Vegas Golden Knights.
“The cool thing about this Stanley it’s actually made from the glass from the NHL Outdoor Games,” Wolf said. “Now to have our own Stanley, which is very important to the NHL, to honor those franchises that are doing exemplary work across the league. This is a meaningful one for sure.”
The Lightning will drop the puck on the 2025-26 season on Oct. 9 against Ottawa.
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