Captain Sidney Crosby makes his feelings known after Bolts slap around his Penguins in woeful 6-1 loss 

The Tampa Bay Lightning handed the Pittsburgh Penguins a crushing 6-1 defeat on Tuesday night, leaving Penguins captain Sidney Crosby frustrated after the loss.

"We weren't good enough in the morning skate," Crosby said via NHL.com. "I think that's why you saw the reaction you did from him [HC Mike Sullivan].

"For good reason. You want to prepare the right way. We didn't have a great practice this morning, and the game went like this. It's not acceptable," he added.

The Lightning jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first period, forcing starting goalie Tristan Jarry out of the game after he allowed four goals on just seven shots. Backup Alex Nedeljkovic has 18 saves in the loss.

Anthony Cirelli scored two goals for the Lightning while Ryan McDonagh, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel added one each. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 14 shots.

Bryan Rust scored the lone goal for Pittsburgh with Crosby's assist:

"We gave up some early ones that gave them momentum, it's tough to climb back from that deficit," Crosby said.

"Just quick hits, a couple of rush plays. It didn't feel like they were carrying the play with zone time or putting us back on our heels. We weren't tight off the rush and they made us pay," he added.

The loss keeps the Penguins six points behind Montreal for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. With just nine games left, Pittsburgh is running out of time to make a final push for the postseason.

Pittsburgh Penguins HC Mike Sullivan on 6-1 loss to Lightning

Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan was visibly frustrated during Tuesday’s morning skate, yelling at his players multiple times. He wasn’t happy with their focus, and that lack of sharpness seemed to carry over into the game.

“My experience being around this game is that it’s very difficult to read into a morning skate. Having said that, obviously we weren’t pleased with the focus or the execution,” Sullivan said postgame.

Despite the rough start, Sullivan felt the team’s effort in the first period wasn’t as bad as the score suggested. Still, he couldn’t explain why the team couldn't contain the Tamapa's offense.

"We just didn’t play well enough,” Sullivan said. “Most of the first, I didn’t think was all that bad. It just seemed like every chance went in the net. One of those nights," he added.

The Penguins will look to bounce back from the loss when they face the Buffalo Sabres next at KeyBank Center on Thursday.