TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning, in collaboration with the National Hockey League and Sony’s Beyond Sports today announced plans to air a real-time, animated broadcast for the team’s game versus the New York Islanders at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 29, live from “Hockey Paradise,” presented by AdventHealth. Alongside the traditional broadcast of the game on FanDuel Sports Network, the latest animated program in the NHL HOCKEYVERSE will be carried locally on the official Lightning app and TampaBayLightning.com.
The animated program will feature real-time, volumetric animation geared toward families and young hockey fans, who will join the Lightning’s mascot, ThunderBug, on a Floridian adventure to Hockey Paradise, where the Bolts and Isles will battle for two points in a Tampa-themed, virtual world, featuring the iconic buildings, beaches and water life of Tampa Bay.
The animated program will be produced in collaboration with Sony’s Beyond Sports, which will merge real-time NHL EDGE Positional Data (NHL Puck & Player Tracking) with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations’ optical tracking to generate realistic character and player avatar movements to bring every action on the ice to life in real time. Through this cutting-edge technology, fans of all ages can enjoy animated shots, checks, passes and saves from some of the NHL’s biggest stars, including Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
In conjunction with the animated action, the Bolts will also celebrate Kids Day, presented by AdventHealth. Fans with tickets to the game will enjoy family-focused programming inside AMALIE Arena throughout the afternoon, while those without tickets can join in on the fun with a free, outdoor watch party live on Ford Thunder Alley, featuring a live stream of the animated matchup against the Islanders. Alongside ThunderBug and some of his friends, fans on Ford Thunder Alley will enjoy a number of activations, including giveaways of autographed memorabilia and other prizes, Lightning beach-themed promotional items, kid-friendly food and beverage specials, face painters, balloon twisters, caricature artists, ball hockey and more.
The matchup between the Lightning and Islanders is one of several NHL HOCKEYVERSE animated data visualizations that will be produced this season alongside Sony’s Beyond Sports, as a continuation of the NHL’s global efforts to feature innovative applications of NHL technology, such as NHL EDGE Positional Data, and deliver the game of hockey to fans of all ages in fun and engaging ways. For more information on the animated program and watch party, visit www.TampaBayLightning.com/TBLHockeyParadise.
NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks and NHL Mascots is a trademark of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. © 2025 NHL. All Rights Reserved.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
