Well, that one was a doozy for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In fact, it was one of their worst losses of the season.
On Tuesday, the Penguins were outclassed by the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 6-1 rout, pretty much being outplayed after the first few minutes of the game. Pittsburgh registered four of the first five shots on goal, and after that, the Lightning completely took over the game.
Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry was pulled after allowing four goals on the first six shots. Anthony Cirelli opened the scoring a little more than 12 minutes into the opening frame, picking up a rebound off a Ryan McDonagh shot in the low slot area and sneaking it past Jarry. McDonagh got a goal of his own just over a minute later, as he threw the puck at the net from a sharp angle on the left wall that hit Penguins forward Rickard Rakell's skate and went in.
But the Lightning just kept coming. Cirelli potted his second goal of the game - and 26th of the season - less than two minutes later, and Brayden Point put one home 48 seconds after that to chase Jarry from the game and put the Bolts up, 4-0.
All four goals happened in a span of less than four minutes, and it pretty much set the tone for the rest of the game, in which the Lightning outshot the Penguins, 27-15.
"We just didn't play well enough," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "Most of the first, I didn't think it was all that bad, but it just seemed like every chance went in the net. It was one of those nights."
Nikita Kucherov added insult to injury within the last five minutes of the second period, as he capitalized on a Lightning power play resulting from a Ryan Graves interference penalty that sent him crashing into Alex Nedeljkovic, who had relieved Jarry in the first. And before the middle frame was over - with less than a minute remaining - Brandon Hagel put home his 33rd goal of the season to give Tampa Bay the 6-0 lead.
Pittsburgh did add a late tally during a mini-push near the end of the third period, as Bryan Rust tipped a Matt Grzelcyk shot from the point to get the Penguins on the board. And Sidney Crosby did register the secondary assist, putting him just one point shy of breaking Wayne Gretzky's point-per-game seasons record.
But all of it was too little, too late, and the Penguins know they can't let games get away from them early on. The good news is that they will get right back at it against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, and they have a chance to wipe this one from memory pretty quickly.
"We just gotta reset," Rakell said. "Look at the next game, learn from our mistakes today, and just restart. It's a new game for us, a new chance for us to respond."
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