Bruins Notes: Boston Needs To Find ‘Consistent’ Play Before Postseason

The Boston Bruins played one of their worst games of the season, dropping an atrocious 5-1 decision to the New York Islanders at UBS Arean on Saturday night.

Boston has traditionally focused on turning the page after games, win or loss, but Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said that wouldn’t be the case with this game.

“We got to look at some things, why we didn’t start on time,” Montgomery told Andy Brickley, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Look at little things of how we can get better. Our execution was pretty poor to start the game.”

The Bruins are in second place in the Atlantic Division, holding a six-point lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs, while the Islanders are fighting for a Wild Card spot with 66 points.

“We talked a lot about having urgency in our game and raising our level,” Montgomery said. “It’s the month of March and it’s time to start building our game at a consistent level for 60 minutes and get ready for the playoffs.”

Even though the Bruins gave up three goals in the opening frame, Montgomery left goalie Linus Ullmark in the game.

“They got to three-nothing, I thought about it. Then we started the second, he made some excellent saves,” Montgomery explained to reporters, per the Bruins. “Then they scored two empty net goals. Nothing was our goaltender’s fault but if it got too many goals early in the first we would have made a switch. One more goal, just to relieve him from the onslaught, that’s all.”

Montgomery added: “We’re a team, right? We win together, we lose together. We won a lot of hockey games so far this year and the goalies have helped us a lot. Sometimes when the team’s not good in front of them that’s gonna happen. They’re part of the team.”

Here are more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Islanders game:

— Pavel Zacha suffered a lower-body injury and was ruled out for the remainder of the game at the start of the second period. Montgomery told reporters he had no “firm” update on whether he would be day-to-day or week-to-week.

— Kyle Palmieri recorded a natural hat trick in the first 12:19 of the game and added an assist for the second four-point game of his career. His hat trick was the Islanders’ first since April 2022. In 33 games against Boston, Palmieri has lit the lamp 13 times.

— Since the All-Star break the Bruins have gone 4-4-5 while allowing 3.38 goals per game. The power play had an abysmal 12.8% success rate in those 13 games, and the penalty kill dropped to 74.3%.

— The Bruins fell to 7-18-5 when their opponent scores first, 2-17-2 when trailing after two periods and 17-10-8 against Easter Conference teams.

— The Bruins will look to get back in the win column when they head north of the border to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. Puck druck from Scotiabank Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can catch all the action, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.