When you work in advertising, you have clients who sell all types of products and services. Sometimes, it’s something you’d never personally use. Other times it’s something useful or enjoyable that you consume on a fairly regular basis. And occasionally, when you’re lucky, your client sells something with which you fall madly, passionately, head over heels in love. That is precisely how I feel about the Tampa Bay Lightning.

We began working with the Lightning just before the lockout-shortened 20th anniversary season of 2012-13. Aside from a brief phase in middle school when I watched hockey because my crush was a huge Flyers fan (shudder), and attending a handful of games in college (GO FRIARS! 2015 NCAA champs!) I hadn’t followed hockey much before then. Then I got a half a season under my belt and I was hooked. Towards the end of that season we got a new head coach and a new goalie; some promising young rookies made their debuts. I decided that Victor Hedman was my favorite, because I liked the way he skated and he scored a lot for a defenseman. So what if hockey talking heads were still talking about whether he was living up to the potential of a 2nd round draft pick?

I went to so many games in the 2013-14 season, mostly for free. What a job perk! I bought myself a ticket to sit behind the bench for one game in March because, well, I was obsessed. It was a wild season. Steven Stamkos cracked his leg against a goalpost while back checking in Boston. He recovered faster than any human should and was ready to come back around the trade deadline in March. Then our captain demanded a trade after 14 years with the team and a Stanley Cup in ’04. The fans were shocked and hurt, but in the end he went to New York and we got their captain, Cally, and named Stamkos our captain on March 6th, when I was sitting right there behind the bench. This was better than any reality show! I couldn’t stop listening to local sports radio personalities hash it out. Despite all that, we made the playoffs! But wait, remember that goalie we’d picked up at the end of last year? The one who’d been our rock all season long? 6’7’ brick wall Ben Bishop? He got hurt. He would not play in the playoffs. So we called up a kid from the AHL, which made him the only player to ever play in the ECHL, AHL, NHL and Olympics in the same season. He was outstanding for Latvia in the Olympics, stopping 55 of 57 shots from Canada in one game. We had faith. But we got swept by Montreal. It was over before it had begun.

Summer seemed like a vast, hockeyless eternity. But finally the puck dropped again and we were in for a treat. Palat, Johnson and Kucherov were put together on a line by necessity in October and there was no looking back. They played so well together that the were dubbed the Triplets. We were finding our groove. Hedman was scoring goals and collecting assists like a Swedish magician. Then he broke his hand in late October and was out for 6 weeks. I went to as many games as I could, watched the ones I couldn’t go to, listened to radio broadcasts of ones I couldn’t watch and followed the rest closely on the Lightning App and Twitter.

There was no doubt that we were making the playoffs. And the fans were so excited this season. It was different. Those rowdy folks who sit in 307 and call themselves Sticks of Fire could no longer be ignored. They became a thing. They were part of the pregame experience, leading the arena in chants. There was Lightning pride everywhere. On cars, on homes, places of business. Apparel sales were up because fans wanted to show their pride. As an agency, we talked to fans, captured video of them in the arena, in their homes; we had a firsthand look at this fever that was overtaking Tampa and we got to capture if for posterity.

Round 1 came and went and we did not get swept. It took seven games but we beat Detroit. I was at Game 7 and the atmosphere was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I still get chills when I think about it. Round 2, hello again, Montreal. We had your number all season, plus we want revenge. So, we’ll beat you in 6, thank you very much. That’s two Original Six teams down and it was time to face the Rangers. Another seven-game series, and King Henrik Lundqvist NEVER loses game sevens, ESPECIALLY not at home in the Garden. But records are made to be broken and now they can no longer say that King Henrik NEVER loses game sevens at home. And we, the Lightning, are Eastern Conference Champions!

And there we were, facing the mighty Blackhawks for the greatest trophy in all of sports, the Stanley Cup. We were four wins away.  We lost game 1 (I was there, it was a bummer), but then we were three wins away and then only two! But those two wins would not come. In the end, our boys were just too beat up to bring it home. Game 6 would be the end of the road. The Hawks would win for the 3rd time in 6 years and cement their reputation as a hockey dynasty. I watched that game at Amalie Arena with nearly 20,000 other fans.  20,000 people who braved a torrential downpour to watch a game that was not being played on the ice, but rather on the Jumbotron. The ultimate watch party. THAT is how much people care about hockey in Tampa Bay.

It breaks your heart to hear Coach Cooper talk afterwards about how much they are hurting, both physically and emotionally. Bishop was playing with a torn groin. Johnson had a broken wrist! It’s incredible if you think about it, that they were able to play at all. But that is what makes hockey beautiful. If these guys care enough to take a beating and keep on going until it’s utterly impossible to continue, than how can you not care? Sports are a metaphor for life, and hockey is perhaps one of the best. It may have taken a little while for people down here to catch on to that, but now that they have, no one can tell us that Tampa is not a hockey town. Already, we’re collectively counting down the days till the puck drops in the fall.

Thanks for a great season, Tampa Bay Lightning. I love you!

– Sarah Waldie