Bruins notes: Boston has to figure ‘consistent’ play before the playoffs

The Boston Bruins suffered one of their worst losses of the season, falling 5-1 to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Saturday night.

Boston has usually concentrated on moving on after games, whether they win or lose, but Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery vowed that would not be the case in this game.

“We got to look at some things, like why we didn’t start on time,” Montgomery said Andy Brickley during NESN’s postgame coverage. “Look at the simple things that can help us improve. Our execution was quite bad to begin the game.”

The Bruins sit second in the Atlantic Division, six points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs, while the Islanders are vying for a Wild Card slot with 66 points.

“We talked a lot about having urgency in our game and raising our level,” Montgomery told reporters. “It’s the month of March and it’s time to start building our game at a consistent level for 60 minutes and get ready for the playoffs.”

Despite allowing three goals in the first period, Montgomery kept goalie Linus Ullmark in the game.

“They got to three-nothing, and I thought about it. “Then we started the second, and he made some great saves,” Montgomery told reporters, according to the Bruins. “Then they scored two empty-net goals.” Nothing was our goaltender’s fault, but if it scored too many goals early in the game, we would have switched. “One more goal, just to relieve him of the onslaught.”

Montgomery continued: “We’re a team, right? We win and lose together. We’ve won a lot of hockey games this year, thanks in large part to our goalies. When the team is not performing well in front of them, this is bound to happen. They are part of the team.”

Here are further notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Islanders game:

— Pavel Zacha sustained a lower-body injury and was ruled out for the rest of the game at the opening of the second period. Montgomery told reporters he didn’t have a “firm” answer on whether he’d be day-to-day or week-by-week.

— Kyle Palmieri scored a natural hat trick in the opening 12:19 of the game and added an assist for his second four-point game of the season. His hat trick marked the Islanders’ first since April 2022. Palmieri has scored 13 goals in 33 games versus Boston.

— Since the All-Star break, the Bruins have gone 4-4-5 and allowed 3.38 goals per game. In those 13 games, the power play had a dismal success rate of 12.8%, while the penalty kill dipped to 74.3%.

– The Bruins went 7-18-5 when their opponent scored first, 2-17-2 when behind after two periods, and 17-10-8 versus Easter Conference opponents.

— The Bruins will aim to get back in the win column when they travel north of the border to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. Puck drop at Scotiabank Arena is set for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch all of the action, including an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.