Namestsnikov scored his 10th goal./STEVEN MUNCIE
Sunday, 2 a.m.
Does losing two out of three games constitute a slump?
Perhaps it does if you're talking about the Tampa Bay Lightning, which dropped a 3-1 decision to the Washington Capitals on Friday. It ended a six-game road winning streak for the Bolts.
The Bolts are now 16-4-2 with 34 points through 22 games.
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Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 of 37 shots, but the Bolts could score only a goal by Vlad Namestnikov.
"I think we think we’re a little bit better than we are,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “There’s a reason we have the record we have, because we’ve worked to get there. I just don’t know if we’re putting in that same kind of effort, that urgency, that determination that got us off to the start. Now, it’s tough when your goaltender’s your star and you still lose the game. Usually when he’s the star, you sneak the game out. That’s not been the case with us. You consider us fortunate to pull out the Chicago game going down 2-0.
"We couldn’t do it against the Islanders and just a lackluster first half of the game for sure for us. The league’s too good. You can’t come in and, you can think you’re going to win, but you actually have to go and give the effort to win. Just probably in the last two games here we just haven’t seen that from our group.”
he Lightning continues its four-game road trip tonight when it plays the Pittsburgh Penguins at Saturday at 7 p.m.
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