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Mike Sullivan Breaks His Silence After Disastrous Loss to Tampa Bay Lightning
The Penguins got slapped around by the Lightning last night, losing in a disastrous 6-1 score, and head coach Mike Sullivan did not hold back post-game.
The Tampa Bay Lightning ruled over the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-1 on Tuesday evening, with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby looking visibly upset.
Tampa Bay came out strong, taking a 4-0 lead in the first period and sending starting goaltender Tristan Jarry packing after he gave up four goals on seven shots. Backup goalie Alex Nedeljkovic saved 18 shots in relief.
Anthony Cirelli led the Lightning offense with two goals, supported by Ryan McDonagh, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Brandon Hagel, all with a goal. Andrei Vasilevskiy was quiet in the net, with just 14 saves.
The lone Pittsburgh highlight was Bryan Rust, who found the back of the net on a Crosby pass.
The Penguins are six points back of a wild-card spot but have played more games
The Penguins are now trailing Montreal by six points for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot, and have nine games remaining. Time is running out on a playoff bid.
Head coach Mike Sullivan saw many issues seep into the game.
While he thought the first period wasn't as bad as the score suggested, he couldn't quite grasp their failure to keep Tampa's offense in check.
«We just didn't play well enough,» Sullivan said. «Most of the first, I didn't think was all that bad. It just seemed like every chance went in the net. One of those nights.»
«I don't have an answer for you,» he said. «This team has played hard for a lot of games here. I thought we came out with the right intentions in the first period. When you get down that many goals early, it's a tough mountain to climb.»
- Mike Sullivan
- Mike Sullivan
Pittsburgh will try to rebound when they play the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday at the KeyBank Center.
| POLL | ||
MARS 26 | 185 ANSWERS Mike Sullivan Breaks His Silence After Disastrous Loss to Tampa Bay Lightning Was this one of the worst Penguins losses of the season? | ||
| Yes | 157 | 84.9 % |
| No | 28 | 15.1 % |
| List of polls | ||