Bruins Notes: Boston Suffers ‘Embarrassing, Unacceptable’ Loss

The Boston Bruins were buried by a second-period scoring onslaught, falling to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 6-2, at Nationwide Arena on Friday night.

The Black and Gold could’ve used the three-day holiday layoff as an excuse, but Bruins forward Charlie Coyle immediately shut that notion down when he spoke with reporters in Columbus following the loss.

“We weren’t winning many battles. They were quicker to the puck,” Coyle said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “They out-battled us. You can’t win many games when you’re being outworked like that. Thats embarrassing.

Coyle added: “It’s the same layoff for everyone. They were ready to play. We weren’t. And it’s just unacceptable.”

After allowing just one power-play goal against the Washington Capitals before the break, the Bruins surrendered three to the Blue Jackets in the loss.

“When your special teams are good, and you take responsibility of that, you give yourselves a good chance to win,” Coyle said. “We saw it last game (against the Capitals), killing off a five-minute (major), and we see what that does for our team and what it can do to kind of dampen their spirits, too. So, when you kind of give them those (goals), that only feeds into their game more and takes away from us. That’s definitely an area that we want to clean up.”

Boston doesn’t have long for the loss to linger. The Bruins and Blue Jackets complete their season series in the second half of the home-and-home on Saturday at TD Garden. In the first two games between the clubs, the Bruins were outscored by the Blue Jackets 11-3.

“Silver lining here is we play them again tomorrow night,” Coyle said. “So, we get another crack at it to play at home and be the better home team like they were tonight. We owe that to ourselves.”

Here are more notes from Friday’s Bruins-Blue Jackets game:

–The Bruins have allowed five or more goals in a game eight times this season. The Dallas Stars and Blue Jackets each scored five or more goals twice against Boston, and the other four times were at the hands of the Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Winnipeg Jets and Seattle Kraken.

— With an assist on Coyle’s third-period goal, Brad Marchand extended his point streak to 11 games. The Bruins captain has tallied seven goals and seven assists and has registered 30 shots on goal during that span.

— The Bruins have won five straight games at TD Garden and look to extend that streak against the Blue Jackets on Saturday. Columbus has been a powerful team on its home ice with an overall record of 11-4-3 at Nationwide Arena, however, the Blue Jackets are just 4-11-3 when they play outside of Ohio.

— Boston allowed three power-play goals in a single game for the sixth time this season. The Jets, Hurricanes, Stars, Blue Jackets, Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche have all lit the lamp three times while on the man advantage against the Bruins in the 2024-25 campaign.

— The Bruins will look to salvage at least one game from the regular season series against the Blue Jackets when they complete their home-and-home against Columbus on Saturday night. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can catch all the action, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.