Sports: Defeat leads to anger

Defeat leads to anger

Unacceptable.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO

Unacceptable.

That was the word coach John Tortorella used Monday to describe Sunday's embarrasing 5-0 loss to Florida.

Center Tim Taylor said it too, as did left wing Fredrik Modin.

Unacceptable not because the Lightning lost, but because of how it lost. It was humiliating and perplexing.

It's one thing to give a legitimate effort and lose to a better team. It's quite another to be mentally unprepared to play. And it is unforgiveable to give the ice, your home ice, to an opponent without a fight. Or without a body check or much of a forecheck.

You've heard of leaving it all on the field? Sunday, the Lightning left it all in the locker room.

"We have to make sure we're prepared, every one of us," Modin said. "We can't make a (terrible) effort like we did. It can't happen. I look at myself and the effort I put out there, and it wasn't pretty."

"It's a mental toughness," Tortorella said. "At this level, you know you're a good player and know you work hard. But it's the next step you have to take to be a better player and a better team."

The Lightning didn't even take the first step against the Panthers despite the myriad circumstances that should have had the team pumped.

The Panthers are the closest thing the Lightning has to a real rival. Previous games have been thumping and fight-filled. Tampa Bay also lost its opener at home to the Islanders and certainly did not want to start this week's western road trip (a graveyard last season) at 0-2.

The players said they couldn't wait for the season to begin. Some said they were frustrated playing just five preseason games and with the six-day break between the final one and the opener.

You mean to say after one game, the excitement, the urgency to right a franchise that has been the NHL's worst the past four years, was gone?

"If we could find an explanation, it would be easy," general manager Rick Dudley said. "We have no idea why we played that way."

Dudley said he is not inclined to shake things up -- yet.

"We're not going to go into a total state of panic because we didn't like our team for one game," he said.

Instead, Tortorella drilled the team with 45 minutes of exhausting, non-stop, one-on-one contests, the same kind of battles at which the Lightning waived a white flag Sunday.

Nobody expects any team to play to critical mass every game. Players are not robots. The 82-game season is a crushing grind. The bumps and bruises (and worse) can mount.

That said, Tortorella doesn't believe it's unreasonable for players to give maximum effort for three hours a day.

"If you're 80 percent and banged up after playing every other day for two weeks, then you have to give 110 percent of whatever you have," he said. "That's what you get paid for."

Maybe this is being blown out of proportion. The season is only two games old. But there are extenuating circumstances when talking about Tampa Bay.

Previous teams expected to lose, a mind-set that resulted in a four-year losing binge the likes of which the NHL had never seen. It is a death spiral the current team cannot fall into.

There is no reason that should happen. The talent has been upgraded, and the coaches have given it the tools to improve. What a waste if the players don't commit to taking advantage.

As corny as it sounds, they owe it to the fans, who have stuck with this team through awful times and should get refunds after Sunday's mess. But most of all, they owe it to themselves.

Who knows? Maybe we'll look back and mark this as a turning point. Either way, wing Nikita Alexeev got it right when he said, "We have to get our heads out of our (butt) and play."