Things were going well for the Boston Bruins simply until they weren't.
The Bruins and Devils exchanged goals in the third period before New Jersey eventually won in overtime Tuesday night at TD Garden and ended Boston's four-game win streak.
After the game, head coach Bruce Cassidy revealed what exactly unfolded for the B's in the final 20 minutes.
"If you look at the chances we gave up I don't think it was our best night from our back end in terms of defending the middle of the ice, being good on 1-on-1," Cassidy said during his postgame media availability. "We kind of stumbled around on one chance. It wasn't their best. We stayed in the game. In terms of offensively and generating tonight, we had enough leads to put it away. But I don't think we were as good as we needed to be certainly in front of the net on the second goal. ... We need to close out better. Plain and simple stuff we typically do better we didn't tonight."
Sean Kuraly had a simple explanation.
"We were playing more to their strengths than we were ours," he said.
The Bruins already punched their ticket to the playoffs, but Kuraly knows the Bruins won't use that as an excuse for the loss Tuesday.
"Maybe that had something to do with it tonight," he said, "but I don't think we're going to use that as an excuse."
Here are some other notes from Tuesday's Bruins-Devils game:
-- Charlie Coyle played just one shift in the third period before not returning to the game. Cassidy didn't have too much of an update on the center afterward.
"No, he had to leave. He's getting looked at so I don't have any update," Cassidy said. "I've got nothing yet. Hopefully, he's OK. But I haven't heard."
-- Kuraly scored the go-ahead goal in the third to make it 3-2 before the Devils tied things up nearly two minutes later. But Cassidy has been impressed with what the forward has brought to the ice lately.
"He's found his game late in the year. Good for us, good for him," Cassidy said. "He's going to the net, his goals are not atypical of how he would score them. ... He's been going to the net a lot lately."
-- Brandon Carlo returned to the ice after dealing with an oblique injury.
"I felt pretty good," he said. "I felt like I was seeing the ice well."
The defenseman also added he'd be good to go for the remainder of the season.
