CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — While the Tampa Bay Lightning are trying to win the Stanley Cup for the third year in a row, a family feud during the first round of the playoff is going viral on social media.
Logan Saul, 17, is a diehard Lightning fan.
“The autographed jersey, I went to one of the parades they had and it has Stamkos’ autograph,” he said.
Logan’s parents love hockey, too. But 23 years after moving from Toronto to Tampa Bay, their favorite team has not changed.
“Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s just in our blood,” Stacey Saul said. “I think Tampa is definitely a hockey town, but they’re not Toronto.
Saul said her son is not shy about trash talking, especially given the Bolts recent success and the Maple Leafs 55-year Stanley Cup drought.
“You got to show everybody that you’re the champions,” Logan told News Channel 8. “The best team in the league. Nobody expected it out of Florida.”
Saul and her husband decided they don’t want to hear any of that gloating during Toronto and Tampa Bay’s first-ever Stanley Cup Playoff matchup.
So, as a prank, they moved his bedroom to the front lawn.
“He can have his team, we can have ours,” Saul said. “But we pay the mortgage and yeah, we’re older than him. I gave birth to him.”
Logan had been hoping for this first round series, but not so much after the Maple Leafs shut out the Lightning 5-0 in Game One.
He watched the game outside Monday night, but after the loss there wasn’t much trash talking, so his mom let him sleep inside for the night.
“I actually did take a nice nap out here as soon as I got home from school,” Logan said.
As part of the prank, his mom even left a roll of toilet paper next to his inflatable mattress.
“Because he can’t come in the house to use the bathroom,” she said.
While Saul said she doesn’t like to jinx her favorite team with playoff predictions, Logan said he is confident the Bolts can bounce back to beat the Maple Leafs.
If the Lightning come back to win the series, he said there will be “a lot of bragging” and he definitely thinks his parents will owe him a “big apology.”
The Lightning play Game two Wednesday night in Toronto before returning to Amalie Arena for Games three and four on Friday and Sunday.