The Bruins have lost 10 games in a row.
Boston fell 4-1 to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night in an Original Six matchup.
While not mathematically eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Bruins must win the remainder of their games as well as get a slew of help from other teams to reach the postseason.
It would be the first time the Bruins missed the playoffs since 2016.
The first period didn’t feature any goals but was still entertaining. The Bruins got some early saves from Jeremy Swayman — something that was missing in his last few starts — on Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook to keep the game scoreless.
In the final two minutes the Canadiens threatened to score, but Andrew Peeke pulled the puck off the goal line and the Canadiens were later denied by the post. Johnny Beecher then went on the partial breakaway but was denied by Sam Montembeault.
Patrick Brown pushed Montembeault into the net and tempers flared behind Montreal’s goalie. Jakub Lauko and Josh Anderson received matching roughing penalties, while Brown was whistled for slashing. The Canadiens on the power play with 1:30 remaining in the first period, but the Bruins penalty kill was strong as the teams went into intermission without a goal.
The Bruins killed off the remainder of the power play to begin the second, but Christian Dvorak made it 1-0 just 40 seconds into the period when he was able to corral a loose pack after Boston failed to clear Brendan Gallagher’s initial shot.
Montreal doubled its lead after a Bruins turnover led to a 2-on-1 that ended with a Caufield goal.
The Canadiens dominated much of the period in terms of shots, holding a 14-0 advantage before the Bruins got their first shot on goal with 6:28 left in the second.
Swayman made some strong saves, including an impressive glove save on Alexandre Carrier. Cole Kopke also dropped the gloves with Kaiden Guhle after the former took exception to a hit on Fabian Lysell.
But the Bruins went into second intermission down 2-0.
They went into a 3-0 hole three minutes into the third period when Gallagher capitalized on a brutal Casey Mittelstadt turnover.
Elias Lindholm got the Bruins on the board late in the third to make it 3-1, but it was too little, too late by that point. The Canadiens went up 4-1 with an empty-net goal from Nick Suzuki to put the game out of reach.
Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves in the loss. The goalie is 0-7-0 in his last seven starts.
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