Friday, 4 a.m.
Sometimes, you lose. Sometimes, you are simply beaten by an inspired opponent playing a superb game.
Then there are games like this, when one team simply trips over the other on its way to defeat.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, gritty as of late, embarrassed themselves late Thursday night with a 2-1 loss to the lowly San Jose Sharks. The Sharks, dead last in the Pacific Division with just 11 wins, smothered the Bolts just a month after losing an 8-1 game to them.
Since then, the Sharks had gone 1-11. They had an eight-game losing streak, and had given up the second-most goals in the league. They hadn’t won a game since November.
Still, Tampa Bay managed just one goal — by Anthony Cirelli. It has scored only three goals in its last two games. It was the 13th goal in 20 games for Cirelli.
“Plays the guys make, they couldn’t make tonight,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Execution was tough tonight. I’ve seen this team make plays all season; tonight they didn’t make them. It wasn’t just one guy. It was everybody.
“No matter who’s in the net, you’ve got to execute. When we did get the puck down there, we didn’t finish.”
San Jose got goals by Tyler Toffoli and Mario Ferraro for the win. Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy lost his 10th game of the season.
San Jose’s Yaroslav Askarov won for only the third time in his career.
The Bolts play at the Los Angeles Kings Saturday night at 9 p.m.
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