Santa Nick arrived in Tampa Bay with fun gifts for his Lightning teammates (Source: Imagn)
The Tampa Bay Lightning shared a hilarious video of Nick Paul on Christmas afternoon. The team went into the holiday break after an impressive 4-0 shutout win over the defending Stanley Cup champions Florida Panthers.
The video was captioned,
“Ole St. Nicck’s got some gifts up his sleeve”
It starts with “Ole’ St. Nick’s GAG gifts” written on the screen. In the video, several Lightning players like Darren Raddysh and others were called into a room one by one, where Nick was sitting disguised as Santa.
First, Raddysh arrived. After he saw Nick dressed as Santa, he said:
“I’m not doing this. I’m not sitting on his lap.”
Nick replied:
“I’ve got a stain on my sweater.”
Raddysh finally sat on the stool next to Nick and opened his gift. He received a comb despite the fact that he is bald. Just as he opened the gift, he broke into laughter. Following this, Nick said,
“You are on the Naughty list.”
Ole St. Nick’s got some gifts up his sleeve 🤣 pic.twitter.com/KQDRhtV9my
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) December 25, 2024
Similarly, Lightning forward Mikey Eyssimont got Listerine, which deals with bad breath. After Eyssimont opened the gift, Paul said,
“The team voted for it.”
Eyssimont replied,
“That’s embarrassing actually.”
Assistant athletic trainer Mikey Poirier received a dipar pack. Forward Cam Atkinson received a stool – a fun humor aimed at Atkinson’s smaller stature. Nick joked after he opened the gift:
“So you can get your gloves up top.”
Forward Luke Glendening received a mistletoe and broke into uncontrollable laughter which did not stop till he exited the room. Glendening said,
“You guys are sick. I’m out of here.”
Forward Anthony Cirelli received a helmet with a nose protector attached to it.
Tampa Bay Lightning’s impressive win over Florida
The Tampa Bay Lightning (19-11-2) defeated the Florida Panthers 4-0, ending Florida’s four-game winning streak. Nikita Kucherov scored first with a backhand goal in the first period. Jake Guentzel made it 2-0 at 9:20. Mitchell Chaffee extended the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal.
Hagel scored an empty-net goal in the third period during Florida’s power play, sealing the win. Goalie Jonas Johansson made 36 saves for his third shutout for Tampa. They remain fourth in the Atlantic Division, below Florida, Toronto, and Boston.