Bruins ’embarrassed’ as losing streak hits six

If the Bruins' fifth straight loss this past Tuesday stung more than most, Thursday's 7-6 loss to Anaheim, which extended Boston's skid to six straight defeats, probably feels like a gunshot wound.

On the way to their sixth straight loss, the Bruins got a good start, possessed two different leads, and even fought their way back from a two-goal deficit late in the third period with two goals in 25 seconds from David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie. Only to cough up the game-winning goal to Anaheim's Troy Terry just 30 seconds later on a sequence that's personified what's gone wrong for this club.

“I’m embarrassed," Joonas Korpisalo, who allowed six goals on 29 shots in the losing effort, said following this one. "We all should be.”

Terry's game-winning goal came on what was yet another response goal allowed by the Bruins this season, and was their second such response goal of the evening, with Boston letting a 2-1 lead slip away in just 2:40 earlier in the night.

"It happens every game, it seems," Geekie, who was caught with poor backchecks en route to Anaheim goals twice in this contest, admitted after the loss. "It’s just embarrassing to the fans, everybody. Everything is poor. Every guy’s gotta look in the mirror and decide where this year wants to go. It’s been all year. We threw a good start down the drain pretty quickly.”

Speaking after the loss, Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov perhaps summed it up best when he said that any game that comes with five goals scored by the Bruins should be an "automatic" win for the club. Bruins head coach Marco Sturm echoed those sentiments when he acknowledged that the Bruins probably aren't an elite team in the NHL, but noted that they're not going to win any game this season where the opponent hangs a seven spot on them.

But for Sturm, the frustrations mounted with the continuation of what's been some downright awful defensive-zone breakdowns from the B's.

“When under pressure, that’s where we struggle the most," Sturm noted. "We’re all embarrassed. Those breakdowns in big moments, that can’t happen. That’s the frustrating point for me because we’ve [succeeded] in the past.

"Why not now?”

Worst of all, the Bruins wasted yet another good start, as they jumped on the Ducks' Petr Mrazek early in this contest, and grabbed a 1-0 on a Casey Mittelstadt strike just 2:10 into the first period. The goal continued what's been a post-scratch heater for Mittelstadt, with three points in two games since sitting out of last Sunday's head-to-head with the Mammoth.

And even when they were down, the Bruins continued to attack Mrazek, and battled back to tie things up on two separate occasions. Even their power play had themselves a day, with a 2-for-2 mark and with two goals in a combined 22-second span. It was their most efficient performance of the season there.

But it was the breakdowns that hung over this team throughout the night, and sent them on their way to what's now their first stretch of at least six games without a win in the first month of a season since 1999.

They began that season on 0-5-4 run, and played the first month of that season without goaltender Byron Dafoe due to a contract dispute with the club.

Considered a game-time decision, defenseman Hampus Lindholm (lower-body injury) remained out of action for the Bruins in what was his third straight missed game. Overall, this was Lindholm's sixth missed game in the last seven contests.

With Lindholm (and Jordan Harris) out, Michael Callahan jumped into action for his first NHL game of the season. Recalled from Providence on Wednesday, the Franklin, Mass. native Callahan played on Boston's third pair opposite Henri Jokiharju, and finished with two shots and three blocks in 16:54 of time on ice.

The Bruins also survived a pair of additional injury scares on the backend in this one, too, as both Charlie McAvoy and Nikita Zadorov left the game at one point due to what looked to be injury-related situations. Both players returned to play, however, and finished the game as healthy defenders for Boston.

The Bruins will get back to work Saturday afternoon when they host Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche at TD Garden. Colorado defeated the Bruins by a 4-1 final when these teams linked up in Denver last weekend.