The NHL Lockout has inspired a charity hockey event at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Saturday, November 17.

Dubbed the "Battle of the Badges," the event will feature policemen, firefighters and Lightning alumni and personalities.

Festivities will begin outside of Gate A at 3 p.m. starting with a used equipment sale. An autograph session will follow at 3:30 p.m. outside of Gate B before gates finally open at 4 p.m. for a youth hockey matchup between two local teams.

Hall-of-Famer and Lightning founder Phil Esposito, Dave Andreychuk, alumni Chris Dingman, assistant coach Martin Raymond, video coach Nigel Kirwan and assistant equipment manager Clay Roffer are some of the personalities participting on Team Police.

Team Fire will have alumni Jassen Cullimore and Stan Neckar, assistant coach Dan Lacroix, head athletic trainer Tom Mulligan and assistant equipment manager Rob Kennedy straping up for them.

"It is an unbelievable honor to share the ice again with these heroes from our local police and fire departments," vice president of fans and business development Dave Andreychuk said in a press release. "We have done a number of charity games with them in the past and I can speak for myself, as well as the rest of the alumni, when I say we’re all looking forward to doing it again for another great cause."

With nothing better to spend time and energy on, the Lightning have certainly put together a worthwhile and exciting afternoon of fun to help fill the void created by the lockout.

Besides the action on the ice there will be contests, raffles, live in-game interviews and appearances by ThunderBug and the Lightning Girls. The key thing here, though, is that it's a charity event. All proceeds will go to the Gold Shield Foundation.