Bruins Postgame: ‘We Dropped the Ball’ in Loss to Senators

October 6, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Boston Bruins were slow out of the gate, could not make up for it, and it cost them two points on home ice.

The Bruins lost 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators on Monday night. Tim Stützle scored twice in the first 10 minutes, including a shorthanded goal, while Drake Batherson and Michael Amadio each added one during the second period. James Hagens scored the second goal of his NHL career, but that was all the Bruins had in store for their second home game of the season.

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Also Read:Bruins Fall Flat in First 2 Periods, Lose to Senators at Home

After the game, Nikita Zadorov got straight to the point.

“There is no message [in the room]. Everybody knows. I mean, we dropped the ball at home. Didn’t come ready to play today,” Zadorov said. “You can see it from the first minute of the game. I don’t know why. Obviously, we have one divisional game in [the] first 17 games. I think it’s important, in the hardest division in the league, to get those points, especially against the team who’s been dominating us for the past two years. So I think we should be automatically pissed off and ready, but we weren’t today. It’s on us to do the homework and make sure it never happens again.”

The Bruins have struggled against the Senators over the last couple of years, and Monday was no different. They are now 2-5-2 against them since the start of the 2024-25 season, and the Bruins have been outscored 38-27 in that span.

“It’s Ottawa that we’ve been struggling around lately, and we just have to figure it out,” David Pastrnak said postgame. “Seems like the team that has success against us in the regular season, and we have to play a no-mistake game. And that didn’t happen from the get-go, and it started with the power play.”

The Bruins’ power play continued its early-season struggles on Monday night. The Bruins technically went 0-for-4, but one power play only lasted three seconds before Elias Lindholm took an interference minor. Still, the Senators managed a shorthanded goal, a crossbar, and a clean 5:46 of shorthanded time.

Ahead of the game, Marco Sturm said he was putting last year’s top unit back together, sans the suspended Charlie McAvoy, because of their chemistry and success together last season. That unit happened to turn the puck over, which led to Stützle’s shorthanded goal. After the game, Sturm did not have an answer as to why the power play has been struggling.

“I really don’t know. I can’t give you an answer right now, honestly,” Sturm said. “We thought putting those guys back together because they had some chemistry, and listen, we were [a] top-10 power play last year. Give them a little bit of comfort, and it kind of went the other way, and honestly, I don’t– I have no idea why. I really don’t.”

David Pastrnak did take some of the responsibility, however.

“I mean, lack of confidence definitely,” he said. “We have to be more direct; we have to recover pucks; we are like one and done, but like I said, obviously, a lot has to do with confidence. We just have to find it. And we proved that we can be a good power play last year. So we just got to get back to it, and like I said, I think mainly it’s the confidence.”

“That’s on us players. Obviously, coach is trying to get the momentum on the power play, and right now, [there’s not] one guy that steps up on the power play and makes the play, and like I said, whether it’s confidence or just execution, we have to figure it out sooner than later.”

The Bruins’ power play now sits at 0-for-10 on the season, and with a shorthanded goal against, they are one of three teams to have a negative net power play percentage (-10.0%).

On the other hand, the penalty kill stepped up and killed a long 5-on-3 power play, and even held the Senators to no shots during their two-man advantage.

That does not discredit the Bruins’ other mistakes, though, including the giveaways and turnovers. The Bruins finished with 21 giveaways to the Senators’ 14, and some of them proved costly. David Pastrnak was stripped of the puck on the shorthanded goal. Hampus Lindholm gifted the puck to Stützle for his second goal. James Hagens made an errant pass, leading to the Senators’ third goal.

Hagens, while scoring the Bruins’ only goal, was pretty hard on himself after the game.

“I mean, you know, personally, I was a big reason for a couple of those goals going in, so I have to be a lot better,” he said. “It’s unacceptable on my end, and you know, it’s tough. You want to be able to play really well and get that win. So it’s just being able to go to practice tomorrow and get ready for the next game.”

This morning, Marco Sturm said the NHL is not a development league.

Sturm on Hagens:⁰⁰“Yes, probably had a tough night like anyone else, but I won’t blame him. He’s a kid who needs to learn. But I think our top guys, you know, games like this, they have to be in charge. I… pic.twitter.com/FixEpXeSIU

— Jack Studley (@jackstudley13) October 6, 2026

Jeremy Swayman, who has yet to beat the Senators since Linus Ullmark was traded, made 20 saves on 24 shots. He finished with a minus-1.7 goals-saved above expected, but it’s hard to fault Swayman; he was hung out to dry on most of the goals.

“You can only save as many 2-on-1s and breakaways, you know. It’s on us to eliminate those scoring opportunities for the other team,” Nikita Zadorov said. “We just got to get back to our identity. I think our identity is play really good, structured defensive hockey. We’re not an offensive team. We’re not a skilled team. We’ve been talking about this for two years.”

“I don’t know why sometimes in the game stretches or sometimes in some games we think we’re offensive and we’re going to make plays through the five sticks. Like, we’re a simple team. We’re going to get pucks deep, you know, get on the forecheck, wear the teams down. We’re going to get our opportunities like we did against New York. We waited, what, 56 minutes to score our first goal; that’s our identity.”

The Bruins, who have now lost two in a row, continue their three-game homestand on Thursday night against the Utah Mammoth. They have a scheduled off day Tuesday before returning to Warrior Ice Arena on Wednesday morning.

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