The Bruins are four games into the 2026-27 season, and Monday night at TD Garden delivered their first real clunker.
Ottawa rolled into Boston and walked out with a 4-1 win, handing the Bruins their first home loss of the year while exposing just how messy things can get when the execution goes sideways. The Bruins tried to inject some life by dressing defenseman Frederic Brunet and center Matt Poitras, but the extra youth didn’t change the mood. Boston made mistakes at every level, and Ottawa made them pay.
The Senators, meanwhile, looked nothing like a team that had been written off by some after Brady Tkachuk forced his way out of town in a trade with Florida. They protected the middle of the ice, clogged the slot and took advantage when Boston handed them openings.
Boston’s biggest issue is starting to look familiar: the Bruins still haven’t gotten a goal from David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie or Pavel Zacha, their top three scorers from last season.
The game opened with a little promise for the Bruins. Geekie broke in alone and rang a shot off the post to the left of Linus Ullmark, and a bit later he drew the game’s first penalty.
But that quickly turned into trouble. Boston came in 0-for-6 on the power play, and the man advantage didn’t just stay quiet Monday - it became a liability.
Just 2:03 after Warren Foegele went off for interfering with Geekie, Ottawa had ripped off a 2-0 lead, and both goals belonged to Tim Stutzle.
The first came after Pastrnak lost the puck in the high slot, opening the door for Michael Amadio to lead a 2-on-1 with Stutzle against Mason Lohrei. Amadio slid the puck across, and Stutzle beat Jeremy Swayman with a high wrister at 7:39.
Then, as Foegele’s penalty was nearly done, Hampus Lindholm handed the puck straight to Stutzle. The Senators forward broke in with Lindholm chasing, missed on his first attempt, then took advantage when Swayman was drawn out of the net and tucked the puck into the empty cage. The goal came three seconds after the penalty expired at 9:22, but it was close enough to count as another shorthanded-style strike in every meaningful way.
Boston then found itself killing off a long 5-on-3 for the second straight game after James Hagens was called for offensive-zone slashing at the end of another empty Bruins power play, and Matt Poitras was whistled for tripping Carter Yakemchuk. Ottawa missed the net a couple of times and failed to finish a few passes, which allowed the Bruins to survive the sequence and reach intermission only two goals down.
That margin didn’t last long. Ottawa made it 3-0 just 1:03 into the second period when Hagens tried to flip a soft backhand pass from just outside the Senators’ blue line to a streaking Pastrnak. Stutzle picked it off, started the counter and sprung Drake Batherson on a breakaway that beat Swayman cleanly.
The game really slipped away at 5:19. Hagens attempted a backhand clear, but Tyler Kleven held the puck in at the blue line. Ottawa stayed on the attack, worked the puck around and eventually found Michael Amadio with what amounted to a wide-open net, and he finished the chance without trouble.
Marco Sturm called timeout after that, but the Bruins were already in deep trouble. He also shuffled his lines, and players like Nikita Zadorov and Mark Kastelic began throwing their weight around.
It changed the energy, but not the scoreboard. Ottawa stayed compact around the slot and kept Boston from finding any clean looks.
The Bruins did get a late power play when Thomas Chabot tripped JJ Peterka on a rush, sending Peterka hard into Ullmark. Peterka briefly headed to the room but returned quickly. Ullmark did not come back out for the third period, and Samuel Ersson took over.
Boston finally got on the board at 3:30 of the third, and it came off an Ersson mistake. He went into the corner to handle a clear-in but couldn’t control it.
Hagens, now on the fourth line, jumped on the loose puck and tried to feed Poitras in front. Instead, the pass struck the scrambling Ersson and went into the net for Hagens’ second goal of the season.
That was as close as the Bruins got. Ottawa had already taken control, and on this night, that was more than enough.
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