Bruins Notes: Uninspired Play ‘Not Good Enough’ In Boston’s Third Straight Loss

The Bruins started their matchup against the Blue Jackets the right way, but something shifted and Columbus gained momentum in the game and never relinquished it.

After the Blue Jackets potted their second goal of the night, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery made the decision to pull starting goaltender Jeremy Swayman from the game and replace him with Linus Ullmark.

“It was just a decision I made to try and slow the game down,” Montgomery said, per the team. “Also, let the entire team know that we need to pick it up. We need to go north.”

The Bruins dropped their third straight game for the first time this season giving the Blue Jackets the opportunity to snap their own six-game losing streak in the process. Montgomery said the Bruins didn’t play to their standard for a full 60 minutes.

“I thought every part of our game was tough, to be honest,” Montgomery said. “I thought we had a pretty good start to the first eight to 10 minutes and then (Columbus) slowly but surely started to take over the game.”

Montgomery added: “I thought we lost stick battles. I don’t think we were physical. There was a lot of areas to our game that we just flat out we weren’t good enough.”

With Boston not playing again until Thursday night when the Bruins host the San Jose Sharks at TD Garden, Montgomery is planning to send the right message to the players before practice on Wednesday.

“We’re not playing to our standard that we believe is how we should play … with the puck and without the puck,” Montgomery said. “There’s a lot of things to address and move forward. We got to move forward.”

For the first time since 2012, the Bruins allowed at least five goals in three straight games, and overall opponents have lit the lamp 17 times in that stretch. Even though Montgomery made the decision to change goalies in the second period, he doesn’t believe the loss lies solely on the shoulders of the netminders.

“I don’t pin it on the goalies,” he said. “I pin it on the lack of cohesion in front of the goalies.”

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Here are more notes from Monday’s Bruins-Blue Jacket’s game:

— With the loss the Bruins fall to 14-4-3 on the season, 7-3-2 on the road and 7-1-1 at home.

— The Bruins have allowed 23 goals in the last five games and have gone 1-4-0 in that stretch.

— Montgomery said Swayman asked him why he was pulled from the game but didn’t offer the goalie an answer at the time. The Bruins bench boss said he then told Swayman they would discuss it later.

— The Bruins will look to get back in the win column when they host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch it live on NESN after an hour of pregame coverage.