The Lightning skated for 45 minutes Sunday morning, and we mean skated. Pucks were scare, though they were used in one-on-one "combat" drills, and most of the time the players' legs were made to burn. With sprints and end-to-end dashes.

But that's what you get when you play a game as the Lightning did Saturday night, a 3-0 loss to the Sharks in which Tampa Bay was dominated, not because San Jose was so great but because the Lightning played so badly and without effort.

"The message is, if you're not going to work at night, you're going to work during the day," coach Barry Melrose said. "There has to be repercussions for lack of effort. That's the one thing that can't be accepted."

"It's punishment," left wing Vinny Prospal said. "If we would have been winning, there would be no practice like that, so, basically, it's to tell us to wake up.. To play at home and play like that is unacceptable."

General manager Brian Lawton watched from the stands and later said there are no immediate plans for any personnel shakeups. But he is interested in how the players respond to a stretch that begins Tuesday in Toronto in which eight of 10 games are on the road.

"We're looking to see what kind of character they do or don't have," Lawton said.

"We've got to show some heart," Melrose said. "Maybe the road is what we need. Maybe it will simplify things and get guys to pay a higher price."

As the best players so far for Tampa bay, goalies Mike Smith and Olaf Kolzig were excused from the skate, as was wing Mark Recchi, for personal reasons.