A follow-up question from Mike Milbury thereafter was apropos: "Well, what is it?"
Krejci, like his teammates, didn't have much of an answer to that. Unfortunately, that's been the story for the Bruins, who have not won a game on the TD Garden ice since Dec. 30. At the conclusion of Tuesday night's games, the B's had fallen to eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings, and time is running out. With 21 games to go in the regular season, every single point counts.
And the last time I checked, you don't earn a point with a 4-1 loss to your archrival.
The Bruins allowed four unanswered goals in the third period of Tuesday night's post-Olympic soiree in which the Canadiens left the TD Garden as the only ones celebrating. As for the home team, they are searching for answers, and they need them fast.
Perhaps they'll come in the form of a deadline deal on Wednesday. Perhaps they'll come when the Bruins hit the road this weekend for seven in a row. The Black and Gold seemed to find answers away from Causeway Street the last time out — they went 4-0 on a road trip leading into the Olympic break.
Maybe they left half their team on that trip, because some players just weren't present in the Bruins' loss to Montreal on Tuesday night.
No matter how the Bruins search for answers this week, they must do a team evaluation and find the missing piece among themselves. Sure a trade-deadline pickup would provide a boost, there's no question about it. But if the Bruins are going to make a run (and I've said all along they will make the playoffs, so that's not a question), then they have to find answers in that dressing room among the players.
I liked what I saw on Tuesday night — through the first 20 minutes, at least. Most Bruins fans would have. But the Bruins need to sustain that pressure throughout an entire 60-minute effort.
"You could tell we hadn't played in a couple of weeks," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Somehow, we started to fade after they scored that first goal. Going into the third period with a 1-0 lead, you never expect to see your team give up four goals."
That's for sure!
In the next couple of games, the Bruins will have their answer to the "somehow" that Julien is looking for. Somehow the Bruins are giving up early leads and losing their games. And if they continue to falter, then somehow the team from last season will be a distant memory and somehow the Bruins will begin their summer vacations way sooner than prognosticators would have expected when the 2009-10 campaign began.
