Fox Sports Net, the company that controls Sun Sports, announced late this afternoon ratings numbers from Saturday night's Tampa Bay Lightning season opener against the Washington Capitals.

On Sun Sports, the Lightning's season opener vs. the Washington Capitals drew the highest opening night rating in Bolts history. The Lightning's 6-3 victory generated a 2.8 household rating in the Tampa DMA, according to Nielsen Media Research. Saturday's broadcast peaked at 3.4 HH rating during game.

A ratings point represents roughly18,000 households (at least when the rating system is applied to the Tampa Bay viewer region). That doesn't say who actually was watching, but it gives the gist of how far and wide the game was seen locally. Numbers from online streams of the game aren't included in ratings.

On top of a sell out crowd at Times Palace, having a captive audience shows that the town is also being wooed back to the sport.