Playing their third game in four days to begin the 2026-27 season, the Boston Bruins hosted the Ottawa Senators on Monday night at the TD Garden. The Black and Gold had three games under their belt in the first week of the season, and the Senators just one.
Ottawa opened its season with a win on Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs on the road. Boston was 2-1-0 entering the game after a season-opening win over the New York Rangers on Sept. 29 at home, and then they split a two-game road trip against the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild on back-to-back nights, Friday and Saturday nights.
The Bruins spent Saturday night in Minnesota and flew home on Sunday for Monday night's game. This was going to be Marco Sturm's club's third game in four days and fourth in six days to open the new season. Boston played a stinker in all areas against the Senators and fell 4-1. There were several reasons as to why they lost the game, but captain David Pastrnak pointed to one glaring area of their performance.
David Pastrnak drops eye-opening quote after ugly loss to Senators
You can file this quote from Pastrnak on Monday night as one that you didn't see coming less than a week into the season.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but it’s the third game in four days,'' said Pastrnak, per Ryan Bosworth of Black N' Gold Productions LLC.
Ah, David, that's an excuse. It's not one that you want to make early in a season. Training camp was shorter this season, and there are two more games. However, to come out after a game where you gifted the Senators four goals, including one on your own mistake that opened the scoring is certainly a choice from Pastrnak.
Boston was on the power play in the first period when Pastrnak had an offensive zone turnover that led to a 2-on-1 shorthanded break for Ottawa. Tim Stutzle finished off the rush with a goal and an early 1-0 lead. Then, at the end of the same power play, defenseman Hampus Lindholm had a bad turnover that led to a 2-0 Sens lead.
The Bruins are not a team built to rally from multiple-goal deficits in a game. It's not in their structure. However, when you gift-wrap four goals in a game, that is going to lead to the results the Black and Gold had on Monday night.
As soon as Pastrnak said, "I don't want to make excuses", you're making excuses. That is not a good look early in the season; basically, blaming load management less than a week into the season is not a good look. It could be a long winter in Boston.
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