Bruins Notes: Joe Sacco Drops Blunt Assessment Of Loss Vs Senators

The Boston Bruins are trying to claw their way into a playoff spot, but a 6-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night certainly didn’t help their cause.

The Black and Gold found themselves trailing 4-1 at the end of the first period after being outshot 15-4 in the opening frame.

“We just weren’t good enough in the first,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Top to bottom and across the board, and they were the better team. They came out. We kind of got what we deserved in the first period.

“You have to be ready to play every night, and the first period just wasn’t good. Our execution wasn’t sharp. We just didn’t do enough good things, and now you’re chasing the game, and you’re chasing the offense, and it’s a hard way to play.”

Despite giving up four goals on 15 shots, Sacco isn’t putting the blame all on Jeremy Swayman, even though the netminder was pulled to start the second period and Joonas Korpisalo finished the game for Boston. The bench boss also shot down the notion that workload was affecting Swayman’s performance.

“I don’t think so. I just think tonight, that’s not all on Sway,” Sacco said. “That’s on all of us. I don’t think that’s the concern. Obviously, we’ll do a good job of trying to monitor that, but like I said, this was a team effort here, and we just weren’t sharp enough in the first period, and it cost us, probably.”

The Bruins were able to battle back with two goals in the second period, but it was too little too late — especially given that former Boston goaltender Linus Ullmark made a few highlight-reel saves in the second and third periods.

“I liked the fact that we didn’t quit in the game, and that we were generating some offense,” Sacco said. “He made a couple of high-quality saves there, but, I just think for us, it was about the start of the game. I loved the fact that we stuck with it. We had some opportunities, and he made a couple of good saves.”

Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Senators game:

— Bruins newcomers Casey Mittelstadt and Marat Khusnutdinov scored their first goal wearing the Spoked-B since being acquired by Boston at the trade deadline.

Mittelstadt has recorded a point in each of the three games he’s played for the Bruins with one goal and two assists in that span.

— Swayman came into play with three wins and an .888 save percentage in 11 games this season that marked his third straight start. The four-goal first period dropped it down to .882, per The Sport Hub’s Ty Anderson. He is 20-22-6 overall this season.

— David Pastrnak recorded his 34th goal of the season and extended his current point streak to five games. He has two goals and five assists for seven points during that span.

— Korpisalo made 15 saves on 16 Senators shots across two periods of relief.

— The Bruins will look to get back in the win column when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game on NESN following an hour of pregame coverage.