Steven Stamkos has put on his captain's hat.
The Tampa Bay Lightning star forward spoke out after Wednesday's 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers, a rematch of last June's Eastern Conference Finals in which his club came out on top.
In his estimation, however, the team is a long way off from replicating that feat.
"We've got to be a little more pissed off (about) the situation we're in. (We) just can't be, 'We'll find a way cause we have talent in here,'" Stamkos said, according to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.
Asked Stamkos how do they change this, turn it around? "If we knew the answer, we would." #tblightning
— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) December 31, 2015
"There's really no consistency to our game right now," he added, "(and) our record at home is atrocious."
Indeed, the Lightning dropped to 9-8-2 on home ice, identical to their road record. The eighth loss matched Tampa Bay's total from last season, when they posted a home record of 32-8-1.
While Stamkos leads the way in scoring, and Nikita Kucherov continues to post star-level numbers of his own, the rest of the roster has underperformed, with depth forward Brian Boyle ranking third in goals with eight.
Compounding the offensive issues is the fact the Lightning have lose 147 man games to injury, fourth-most in the NHL. Most notably, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, and Jonathan Drouin have all missed multiple games, keeping head coach Jon Cooper from deploying an optimal lineup on a consistent basis.
But injuries are an ever-present reality for all clubs, and the fact is the Lightning sit three points out of a playoff spot as the calendar gets set to turn to a new year. And if things continue as they have, "pissed off" will be one of a plethora of emotions experienced by the defending Stanley Cup finalists.
