“We just didn’t play good,” Marco Sturm said after the Bruins’ loss Thursday night.

The Boston Bruins (34-22-5) fell 6-3 to the Nashville Predators (28-26-8) at Bridgestone Arena. The Predators scored four in the second period, and two third-period goals were not enough for the Bruins to climb back. 

The loss dropped the Bruins to 11-14-4 (.448) on the road this season. Their last road win came in Chicago on January 17 (0-3-3 since). 

“I think we kind of played into their strengths a little bit, and they took advantage of it,” Morgan Geekie said after the game. “It seems to be the way things go on the road, and you know, it’s tough to see points slip away like that.”

The Bruins never took a lead on Thursday night. Nic Hague opened the scoring, and four second-period goals helped the Predators add to their lead, including a shorthanded goal and a power play goal.

Morgan Geekie cut the deficit to 2-1 with his 12th power play goal of the season. The goal also marked a career-high 34 goals for Geekie, surpassing his total from last season (33). 

For a few minutes, it brought the Bruins some momentum. It also reignited the spark that the B’s power play displayed before the Olympic break.

“A little bit, yeah,” Geekie said about his goal providing a jump. “Our power play struggled [in the] last couple of games, and it was nice to see one go in.”

It did not last long, though, as the Predators capitalized seven minutes later to make it 3-1. By the end of the second period, it was 5-1. 

Charlie McAvoy and Viktor Arvidsson added third–period goals, but it was too little, too late for the Bruins. 

After the game, Charlie McAvoy elaborated on what went wrong for the Bruins. 

“We played sort of wide-open tonight, and that’s not really our game,” he said. “We like to put pucks behind. We got to wear teams out. We want to be physical. Like, we know our game, and we just didn’t do that tonight, it felt like at all. It felt like we didn’t get any forecheck time in the second. Like, we just didn’t establish anything.”

“We didn’t do enough with our opportunities. That’s on the power play, that’s on anything. We gave up a lot of penalties, too. We gave up some power play opportunities and a goal. We just didn’t play a good enough game, every aspect of it, it just wasn’t good tonight.”

McAvoy also took a puck to the face in the first period. He said it was on the other side of his face, not the spot previously injured, and added that he believes he will be alright. 

Additionally, the NHL trade deadline is looming. It is Friday at 3:00 PM. Marco Sturm was quick to say it was not a distraction. 

On the other hand, the Predators traded four players in the three days leading up to the game. 

“It’s always tough when the opponent is missing or scratching guys,” Marco Sturm said. “Seen it a lot of times before. It’s not like we took it lightly, but they just, you know, the guys who came in, they worked extremely hard, and they worked more than us. And that was the difference.”

For the Bruins, the turnaround is quick, and the message is clear. The Columbus Blue Jackets are only one point behind the Bruins for the second wild card spot.

“Every game we play the rest of the way is the most important game of the year,” Charlie McAvoy said. “I don’t know if we have that urgency yet, and we are going to play teams that have that urgency. We’re going to play two of them in the next two games, like, this team tonight is trying to make the playoffs. I don’t know if that’s something that we’ve talked about, and maybe that’s shame on us.”

“Every game the rest of the way is the most important.”

The Bruins will return to the ice on Saturday, after the deadline, for a 12:30 PM game against the Washington Capitals (31-25-7). Then they will travel to Pittsburgh for their third and final game against the Penguins (31-17-13) on Sunday.