Lightning bring players' fathers along for most recent road trip
The Tampa Bay Lightning turned their most recent road trip into a father-son affair.
Fathers of Lightning players made the journey to St. Louis and Dallas with their sons to see Tampa Bay earn three points in the two-game, four-day trek that ended Thursday night. The proud dads sat in a suite for the Lightning's stops at Scottrade Center on Tuesday and American Airlines Center on Thursday, in addition to taking in practices and team meetings. Tours of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis and Dealey Plaza in Dallas also were held. Before hitting the road, the fathers also checked out their sons' stomping grounds at Amalie Arena in Tampa.
This was the Lightning's first father's trip since the 2008-09 season. Jon Cooper told reporters that the trip was a "real-life thank you card" for all the work the fathers put into developing their sons' hockey interest.
By all accounts, this heartfelt "thank you" was well-received.
And we're off! Here's some of the #TBLightning dads heading to morning skate in St. Louis. pic.twitter.com/bj4HeLvUzg
— Michelle Gingras (@michellegingras) February 3, 2015
Taking it all in. #TBLightning #ProudDad @JTBrown23 pic.twitter.com/JMHkafLOSf
— Michelle Gingras (@michellegingras) February 3, 2015
Callahan's, Boyle's and Morrow's dads taking in the sights and sounds at #TBLightning practice this morning pic.twitter.com/Hopm5uUuMh
— Michelle Gingras (@michellegingras) February 2, 2015
'Cheers to a win!' This is going to be fun #BudweiserBrewerytour #TBLightning #DadsTrip pic.twitter.com/gbPE2BICGJ
— Michelle Gingras (@michellegingras) February 3, 2015
Check out those sweaters! Officially game ready #TBLightning #DadsTrip pic.twitter.com/nsaTS2ZJsc
— Michelle Gingras (@michellegingras) February 4, 2015
GALLERY: Go behind-the-scenes of this week's Dads Trip: http://t.co/N35AmmLocb pic.twitter.com/cXwAR5C1U3
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) February 4, 2015
The Bolts players took their dad's on the road with the this week - see the top photos: http://t.co/NWP7vzqSAm pic.twitter.com/0bee4oO8cM
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) February 5, 2015
You can follow Andrew Astleford on Twitter @aastleford or email him at aastleford@gmail.com.