I’ve asked this question a few times in the past couple of days - and many more times with my brother - about what the Lightning would do for their home opener should the Rays make it to the American League Championship Series.

Well, the Rays did advance and sure enough they will host Game 2 of the ALCS on Saturday with a first pitch scheduled 8:07 p.m.. The Lightning home opener, of course, is also scheduled for Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and as of now the two will overlap.

In my opinion, this can’t happen. If I’m sitting over at Channelside Drive this morning/afternoon I’m already making plans to shift the start time for Saturday’s game so the fans of Tampa Bay can catch both events - either in person or on television. This should be a no-brainer.

But there is one issue that might tie things up - Carolina plays at home at Friday night and the league doesn’t like teams to have to play games within 24 hourse of each other. It’s not unprecendented, however, to move the start times for games and I’ve seen the Lightning have to play a game at home one day and play the next day, less than 24 hours before the previous game started. So, I don’t think it would be an issue if Tampa Bay asked permisison to move the game to a 5 p.m. start.

The response I got from the team on Monday was that everything was status quo and they planned to start the game as normal. Today, however, it might be a different story. I’ll ask around and see if their plans have changed.