BOSTON — At the micro level, the Bruins are in the midst of a five-game winless streak. At the macro level, they’re set up to have a real battle in the second half to make the playoffs. They returned home on Tuesday night to face the defending Western Conference champions featuring the best player it the world.
Coming off a day off on Monday, they had every reason to be motivated, every reason to be energetic. But like too many nights during the 2024-25 season, they came out flat and never really challenged in a 4-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
“They were certainly playing at a higher level right from the drop of the puck. They won the majority of races to pucks. they were quicker to pucks, won more one-on-one battles,” Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco said. “We pretty much got what we deserved tonight because of the way we played.
“We didn’t execute the game plan tonight,” Sacco added. “We have to find some solutions within our team. That’s the next step for us.”
The Bruins are acknowledging that they’ve got issues, but don’t have answers to why.
“That’s a question we’re trying to figure out,” Trent Frederic said. “I don’t have the answer to that.”
He’s not alone and he made better attempts than some of his teammates. Frederic tried to spark his team with a fight, but even that didn’t produce the desired effect. He got an extra two minutes and the Oilers extended their lead on the power play.
“We haven’t been our best since (Christmas) break. We’ve gotten away a little bit from the way that we were playing to have success,” Brad Marchand said. “It’s on us to play a better brand of hockey, the way that we were before the break.”
Nikita Zadorov thought the recent slump was in the players’ heads.
“It’s frustrating to lose five in a row. There’s not much confidence out there right now. We’re thinking too much. We’re a half step behind everybody. We’re not playing hard enough. We’re not connected. There’s a lot of things we need to take day by day,” he said. “I thought we played really good hockey before the break. We had our details. We had our swagger. We had our hard work. We were so detailed with everything. We have to get back to basics. Starting with myself we have to look in the mirror to be better overall.”
They’re hoping that starts Wednesday, at their first practice in several days.
The Bruins are currently in third place in the Atlantic Division but are aided greatly by having played more games. Using points percentage, they’d be in the second wild-card spot, the last team to make the playoffs if the season ended today.
“We understand the situation we’re in. We understand we can’t give points away,” Marchand said. “We’re not that far from moving up in our position in our division. We need to be better. We can’t continue to slip and give away points in the situation we’re in.”
Zadorov didn’t expect any sympathy.
“It’s our job. People pay big bucks to watch us do that,” he said. “It’s our job. There’s no excuses. You have to find a way.”
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