Going into Thursday night's game against the Ottawa Senators on the road, the Boston Bruins were looking to continue their seven-game winning streak at the site of their last loss. On Oct. 27, the Senators steamrolled the Bruins, 7-2, at home. It was a game that was still fresh in the minds of the Black and Gold.
Since that loss last month, Boston had won seven straight, including a 3-2 overtime win over the Senators a week earlier at the TD Garden. However, it was the last loss they were looking to try to get out of their minds with a better performance in Canada.
“I feel like we’re a much different team now than when we came here eight games ago,” said former Senators forward Mark Kastelic before the game. “Every day is a new game. We’re going to try to take that approach.”
Unfortunately, the result was a 5-3 loss that happened in a very familiar fashion during their losing streak of six games earlier in the season.
Bruins coach Marco Sturm points to the Bruins issues in loss to Ottawa
Stop me if you have heard this before in 2025-26. The Bruins came out sluggish, turned the puck over in the final two periods, but in the end, shot themselves in the foot several times and gifted the Senators goals that ended up in a regulation loss.
“The energy was good,” said Sturm. “It was just a lack of concentration and not sticking with what we were doing, and those little mistakes. It’s a good team over there; they pressured our D very good. They’re doing a good job, and unfortunately, we gave too many pizzas away today.”
It was turnover, after turnover, after turnover in the defensive zone that sunk the Black and Gold. They had multiple times on three of the five Sens goals to clear the puck out of the zone before it ended up in the back of their net. Then there was the back-breaker to begin the third period. It certainly was a lack of concentration and too many mistakes.
After being pinned in their end for a shift, the Bruins finally cleared the puck, but they only got it to center ice, and Ottawa quickly transitioned the other way, and it led to Shane Pinto being alone, crashing the Boston net, and he redirected a Michael Amadio pass past Joonas Korpisalo for a 3-1 lead.
Give the Bruins credit, they fought back down two goals in the third period and put themselves in a position to at least pick up a point, but a bad Hampus Lindholm turnover in the defensive zone with less than six minutes left led to a Tim Stützle game-winning goal.
The Bruins were good during their losing streak, but they learned on Thursday night that reverting to their old ways isn't going to cut it. Banking even one point this early in the season is key, but to lose on turnovers and suspect play in their own end is only going to be losses looked back on at the end of the season if they just miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs.