Lightning beat Hurricanes to cap a long week in North Carolina due to Hurricane Milton

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Victor Hedman and his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates spent the better part of a week in North Carolina keeping a watch on what was going on back home as Hurricane Milton roared ashore.

Now, with the storm past along with their regular-season opener, they can finally get back home and figure out what's next.

The Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 in Friday night's season opener for both teams to cap a long stay in the Raleigh area, their haven to get out of Florida ahead of Milton's arrival. Tampa Bay's premature departure meant spending days skating to get ready, spending time with their families in an extended stay in a new place and hoping for the best back home.

“I think most of the guys have gotten reports about their own properties,” Hedman said, adding later: “It's good to have a few days to kind of get everything together.”

This week's storm left at least 10 people dead as of Friday night amid flooding and tornadoes, while the number of customers in Florida without power was roughly 1.9 million, according to poweroutage.us. The Lightning's preseason game against Nashville on Monday was canceled, and the team instead headed to the North Carolina to get out of the area before Milton made landfall.

Jon Cooper, who has coached the Lightning to two Stanley Cups, wasn't sure exactly how his team might respond Friday night with disrupted routines and worry.

“Outwardly as a coach, you want to be optimistic, but sometimes you're a little nervous inside,” Cooper said. “So you weren't exactly sure how things were going to go. But I do know the guys really wanted to play a hockey game.”

Other than Jordan Staal's goal, Cooper liked the way Tampa Bay played in the first period. A strong third period that included three goals — the go-ahead one-timer and two empty-netters — from Nikita Kucherov pushed the Lightning to victory.

“I think everybody's so locked in right now,” Kucherov said.

The game between perennial playoff teams offered a welcomed distraction and normalcy in an abnormal situation, at least.

Many of the players had family with them on the trip, and Cooper let the team have Wednesday off as they geared up for opening night. Cooper also grabbed the chance to venture over to Duke in nearby Durham to reconnect with Blue Devils men's lacrosse coach John Danowski, Cooper's coach at Hofstra during his own playing career (1986-89) that included scoring 74 goals and winning two conference championships.

Danowski offered a tour of Duke and its venerable Cameron Indoor Stadium men's basketball home, and Cooper said he also got to meet retired Blue Devils Hall of Fame men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski — the winningest coach in that sport's history with 1,202 wins in a career that included five NCAA titles and 13 Final Fours.

Next came a visit to nearby North Carolina since the Lightning were staying in Chapel Hill, home to the Tar Heels basketball program that has won six NCAA titles and is known for its notable basketball alums.

“We saw the many hundreds of pictures of Michael Jordan everywhere and found a pretty cool establishment there,” Cooper told reporters earlier Friday. "It was good, we had a good time. For me, though, I didn’t realize how close Duke and North Carolina were from each other, and I see why there’s such a rivalry.

“It’s the things you have to do when you’ve got a little extra time on your hands.”

The Lightning and Hurricanes were originally slated to play again in Florida on Saturday, though that game was postponed due to Milton recovery. That means Tampa Bay won't play again until hosting New Jersey on Tuesday.

“I don't know if anybody on the team has power,” Cooper said after the win. “Everybody's probably be going back to Tampa and staying in a hotel. ... This will be the first time that anybody gets to see what damage has been done with their own eyes. Is there water in your house or not? So that's going to be trying. We're not out of the woods yet with some of the adversity we've got to face.”

The team won't skate Saturday and will aim to return to work Sunday, hopefully with some certainty about what's ahead.

“We’re super excited to get back home and hopefully get our lives going again," Hedman said, “and hopefully we’re done with the storms this year.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Aaron Beard, The Associated Press