The Penguins had a tough night on Tuesday in Tampa. The Lightning, who entered the game with the NHL’s No. 2 offense and fifth-ranked power play, came away with a 6-1 win over Pittsburgh.
"We definitely didn't have our strongest game today," Rickard Rakell said.
Sidney Crosby picked up the secondary assist on Bryan Rust’s goal to get one away from clinching his 20th point-per-game season, which would surpass Wayne Gretzky (19) for the most in NHL history. The captain's next chance to achieve that feat is Thursday in Buffalo, which will close out the road trip.
"We just got to reset and look at the next game," Rakell said. "Learn from our mistakes today, and then just restart. New game for us, new chance for us to prove ourselves."
Tonight, after a rather uneventful first few minutes of play, the Lightning broke the game open with four goals in less than four minutes, starting at the 12:13 mark. Alex Nedeljkovic replaced Tristan Jarry between the pipes for Pittsburgh after that outburst.
“Just quick hits. A couple rush plays,” Crosby said. “It didn’t feel like they were carrying the play with zone time or putting us back on our heels. They’re really dangerous off the rush and they executed on a couple plays.”
Tampa Bay tacked on two more goals in the middle frame, while the Penguins struggled to get anything going. They had just eight shots after 40 minutes of play, and 17 total.
Here’s what Head Coach Mike Sullivan had to say after the game.
What went wrong in the first in particular? “We just didn't play well enough. Most of the first, I don't think it was all that bad, but it just seemed like every chance went in the net. It was one of those nights.”
This wasn’t reflective of how you guys have played for several weeks now [they had a 5-1-1 record coming into tonight]. What happened?
“Yeah, I don't have an answer for you. This team has played hard for a lot of games here. I thought we came out with the right intentions in the first period. But when you get down that many goals early, it's a tough mountain to climb, especially against a team like that.”
You didn't look real happy during the morning skate today. Were there some potential focus issues that drifted their way into this evening's game? Or is that not related? “My experience of being around this game is that it's very difficult to read into a morning skate. But having said that, obviously we weren't pleased with the focus or the execution.”
Is there an update on Evgeni Malkin [who missed his first game since returning from the 4 Nations Break after missing six straight going in]? “He’s being evaluated for an upper-body injury.”
