Part of the problem with calling something “a must-win” is what happens when you don’t actually win the game.
David Pastrnak and the Boston Bruins found that out the hard way in Tuesday night’s final home game prior to the NHL’s three-day holiday break where the bottom completely fell out in the third period of a 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden.
A broken stick for Nikita Zadorov at a key juncture in the third period led to Montreal’s game-winning goal for Zac Bolduc, and then a pair of ensuing 5-on-3 power plays for the Canadiens pushed things out of reach as the Habs scored four unanswered goals in a third period that’s usually Boston’s strong suit.
The Bruins lead the NHL in PIMs (522), minor penalties taken (164, 16 more than the second-place team) and are at a whopping minus-29 in terms of penalties drawn versus penalties taken, and watched on Tuesday as it was their undoing once again.
“You can show them, you can talk about it…I think we have addressed it many, many times before,” said Marco Sturm. “At a point, it is up to the players a little bit. As a player you have to know when to use your stick and when not to. There’s a lot to it. It’s a big deal because those can cost games and points, and those are the kinds of points that you need if you want to be in the playoffs at the end of the year.”
It was the fourth straight loss for the B’s during a five-game homestand headed into the Christmas break and left them with a 1-3-1 record that has pushed them out of the Eastern Conference playoff structure ahead of the holidays. The good news is there’s only six points separating the top-12 teams in the East at the holiday break, so the Black and Gold are still in position for a postseason push after the holidays.
The bad news is that the Bruins have made things more difficult for themselves by being unable to dig deep and find a little more energy during the homestand, where it was pretty clear mental and physical fatigue crept into their overall game. The coaches and the players appeared visibly tired after Tuesday’s game at the end of a very busy stretch of hockey where they’d played five games in eight days ahead of the break.
In that case, it wasn’t an excuse. It was just the reality of playing a condensed NHL season where there are 82 games wedged into a time period where three weeks have been removed for the Winter Olympics.
“We have to get to [our style of play] before it’s too late,” said David Pastrnak. “There is lots of hockey left to be played [this season], but at the same time we need to get back to the details and structure that make us successful. I feel like there’s been a little bit of mental fatigue these last couple of games.
“A lot of mental mistakes that have cost us games. Hopefully everybody can spend a few days with the family and come back recharged because things are not going to get easier in the second half of the year.”
Even with a bad ending for the Bruins, it was a thoroughly entertaining game with a pair of heavyweight bouts in the first period as Tanner Jeannot tangled with Josh Anderson right off the opening draw, and later Nikita Zadorov and Arber Xhekaj were throwing bombs at each other at center ice. The emotion was there early and it was a 2-2 game through 40 minutes with an Elias Lindholm second-period goal waved off because David Pastrnak’s stick had become tangled in with Montreal netminder Jacob Fowler.
JOSH ANDERSON AND TANNER JEANNOT DROP THE GLOVES RIGHT OFF THE OPENING DRAW 😱🥊 pic.twitter.com/Dg803NmIrz
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) December 24, 2025
The Bruins just obviously couldn’t sustain it for an entire 60 minutes at the end of an ultra-busy stretch leading into Christmas, and the boneheaded penalties and costly turnovers piled up in the final period. Once the snowball started rolling downhill in the third, there was little Boston could do to slow up the four unanswered goals that saw the Canadiens dancing on Garden ice by the end of the game.
“Mistakes…I thought we made a couple of mistakes going into the third and then there was penalties and 5-on-3 goals. That’s why we lost the game,” said Zadorov. “I think when we trust our structure and we trust our style of hockey, we are in good shape. That is how we won seven games in a row.
“When we try to play east-west hockey with turnovers in the neutral zone and we put [ourselves] behind with the penalties and the PK, it’s a good league. There are a lot of good teams and they are going to make plays on you. When we get away from our structure, we get into trouble. It is disappointing to lose four games in a row at home. We have three days [of holiday] break, we need to get it together. We’re still there. It’s tight standings in the East. We need to come up with some points if we want to be a playoff team.”
One thing that Sturm stressed was that it wasn’t a