Steven Stamkos wants his teammates to get mad. He doesn’t want them to take it anymore.
“I think we ought to be a little more pissed off with the situation that we are in,” Stamkos told reporters last night after the Lightning’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers.
“Hopefully we, myself included, can take these couple of days here and really start to worry about the future of this team going forward because we are running out of time.”
The Lightning -- who managed just 22 shots versus the Rangers -- are winless in their first two games following the Christmas break. They lost 4-3 in a shootout to Montreal on Monday. Both defeats came on home ice.
The Bolts (18-16-4) are three points back of the second wild-card spot in the East, and four points back of third place in the Atlantic Division.
“It’s very disappointing,” said d-man Anton Stralman. “We’re not good enough, playing well enough. That’s just the basics of it.”
The Lightning host Minnesota on Saturday, before leaving on a four-game road trip through Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Colorado.