from Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times,

...coach Jon Cooper made one thing abundantly clear after Tuesday's 4-1 loss to the Sabres at Amalie Arena, its seventh loss in the last nine games.

"First of all, this season isn't last season," Cooper said. "There's a big difference between the two."

"There's no comparison," captain Steven Stamkos said.

The Lightning look like a shell of the team that reached the Stanley Cup Final just five months ago. Cooper said they'll have a different journey this time, and it's certainly going to be more difficult after Tampa Bay fell under .500. The Lightning (7-8-2), the highest scoring team in the league last season, was held to one goal or less for the eighth time, and now finds itself in uncharted territory, below .500 this late in the season for the first time since missing the playoffs in 2012-13.

"We're not a fragile team, but when things aren't going well, you're a human being, you start to doubt yourself," Stamkos said. "You start to doubt things. We can't let that creep in. You're not going to feel that way when things are going well and the team is scoring and we're winning last year. We've got to have that sense of urgency."

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