Bruins Notes: Team Leaders Give Candid Assessment After Frustrating Loss To Oilers

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins seemed in lockstep when it came to their feelings about a 4-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at TD Garden on Tuesday night.

And none of it was good.

“A lot of disappointment. Embarrassed, a lot. Frustration. A lot of things,” Elias Lindholm said.

The Oilers’ cruising past the Bruins represented a fifth consecutive defeat for Boston and, by far, the most deflating of the bunch. Edmonton struck 6:33 into the first period and the Bruins never really generated a response.

“They wanted it more. It’s pretty simple,” Charlie Coyle said. “I think it was kind of a lack of urgency. A lot of things that kind of are embarrassing to say right now. They just wanted it more.”

Lindholm couldn’t put his finger on the reason for the sluggish start. The Bruins mustered up just 12 shots through the first two periods. And by that point, they were staring at a sizable 3-0 deficit that was way too challenging to overcome.

“There was a lot of things that wasn’t going good for us,” Lindholm said. “Lack of compete and stuff like that. Four-game losing streak, and obviously, we weren’t even close tonight. We were lucky we were down 3-0. It’s tough. Obviously, we got to regroup, practice good (Wednesday), and be ready for a tough road trip.”

Lindholm, Coyle and Bruins captain Brad Marchand all iterated the team strayed away from Joe Sacco’s game plan. Marchand believes the Bruins are forcing their offense and not playing tight enough defense, which he called a “recipe for disaster.”

The Bruins need to find their identity, the one that led them to win seven of their first nine games under Sacco. And the Bruins don’t plan on wasting any time in trying to get that back.

“It’s something we need to work on, clearly,” Coyle said. “We know it’s in here. We’ve seen it, we’ve shown it. This last little stretch, though, we swayed away from it for whatever reason, that is.

“It starts (Wednesday) in practice. We need a hard practice. We need to work on execution, work on the way we know how to play, the way we have to play and we really need to bear down on that.”

Here are more notes from Tuesday’s Bruins-Oilers game:

— Trent Frederic tried to fire up his Bruins teammates by pummeling Oilers forward Corey Perry with his fists midway through the second period. But the fight had an unintended consequence for Frederic. He was assessed an additional roughing minor to go along with his fighting major and the Oilers scored on the power play 34 seconds after Frederic’s bout with Perry.

“Part of the idea,” Frederic said of trying to ignite the team. “Stinks that I got a penalty on that, so didn’t really work out that way. That’s kind of it. Not much more to it.”

— Jeremy Swayman really deserved a better fate. The Bruins goalie stopped 35 of the 38 shots that went his way. It was his most saves in a game since a 38-save performance on Oct. 22 against the Nashville Predators.

— Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov ran over Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner with 5:25 left in the first period. Zadorov, who was issued a goalie interference penalty on the play, contended he got nudged in the back. Zadorov said he didn’t collide with Skinner intentionally and also apologized to him.

“I wouldn’t want to hurt anybody on the ice,” Zadorov said. “I wouldn’t want anybody to do that to my goalie, either. So, I felt like it was fair to say there was no intention to hurt him over there or anything like that.”

— The defeat to the Oilers marked Boston’s first regulation loss on home ice since getting edged by the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1, on Nov. 29.

— If the regular season ended Tuesday night, the Bruins would be in the playoffs. They currently sit in third in the Atlantic Division with 45 points. But the Bruins have played five more games than the Tampa Lightning, who are in fourth in the division with 44 points, and two more games than the Columbus Blue Jackets, who hold the final wild-card spot at the moment with 42 points.

“We understand the situation we’re in, and we understand we can’t give points away, and we need to be better,” Marchand said. “I don’t think we look at where we’re at and panic by any means.”

— The Bruins look to snap their losing streak Thursday when they take on the Lightning. Boston players will have their mothers in attendance as part of the annual family trip for the team. Puck drop from Amalie Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.