Friday night was ugly for the Bruins, a dead effort in which the Red Wings dominated them to the tune of a 6-1 score. Two nights after their 8-6 beatdown of the Habs on Wednesday, they were outraced and outsmarted in every facet of the game. The lesson? Maybe these guys just shouldn’t have so many statement games. 

If Bruins fans had their way, they would take Wednesday’s game 41 times a season, and last Thursday’s rear-kicking of the Stars for the other 41. These games, both of which have featured plenty of offense and more than enough penalty minutes, have left the Bruins riding high and their fans leaving TD Garden pumping their chests and cheerfully shouting whichever PG-13 chant they can think of. 

What is difficult to see at the time is the biggest side effect of these statement games. Friday was the latest loss to suggest that these great wins have not only been emotional, but emotionally draining. That’s a problem. 

“Maybe we just kind of expect it to come to us pretty easy,” Bruins forward Brad Marchand said of the team’s tendency to follow huge games with flat efforts. “Especially after a game like [Wednesday's], maybe we focus on the last game a little too much.”

By the WEEI.com stat truck’s count, the Bruins have had three games that could really qualify as “statement games” of the team dominating much of the night (or using fisticuffs to make up for shortcomings) without ever playing from behind. Those games have been the 4-1 win over the Thrashers on Dec. 23, last week’s Stars contest, and Wednesday’s fight night against the Habs. The B’s broke for Christmas following the Thrashers contest and didn’t return to action until Dec. 27 grabbing a 3-2 shootout win over the Panthers. With three days off and time to clear their minds, it seems that Dec. 27 may have been the exception to a trend before it even started. 

The Bruins have followed their victories over the Stars and Habs with a 2-0 loss to the Sharks last Saturday and Friday’s catastrophe vs. the Red Wings. The one thing the games have had in common? Lethargy. 

“We weren't skating tonight. We were second on the puck. Even when they had the puck, I just felt they had lots of time to make plays,” Claude Julien said after the game. “We were very slow-reacting tonight. I don't know if the emotional games that we've played lately caught up to us and we just came out flat, but it just seemed that nothing was going to go our way.” 

There was obviously more to the Bruins’ loss Friday than the fact that it followed a big win. Tuukka Rask wasn’t on, admitting that he felt he should have been pulled (as he was after two periods). Plus, there’s the fact that the Bruins just might not match up well with the speed and skill of the Red Wings. Still, neither of those can explain a lack of energy or emotion. Understandably, one of the team’s leaders is confused as to why the team hasn’t been able to take momentum from a game like Wednesday’s and turn it into another high-energy game.

“[We’ve been] trying to bring consistency and bring it night in and night out. I think we didn't do that,” Patrice Bergeron said following the game. “I think we should have built from what happened last game, so I don't think we should have come out as flat as we did.”

Of course, it’s hard to argue with those statement games as they’re being played. The reminder that this team can beat you with offense, defense, goaltending, and if all else fails, fists, is something they can stand to give teams from time to time. 

While that’s been fine and dandy for the B’s as the highlights are shown and the praises are sung, it’s the carry-over effect that has cost them points, and it will take some forgetting on the Bruins’ part to remedy it. 

“It definitely takes a lot of concentration and preparation to kind of walk away from [Wednesday’s game], just like a bad loss,” Andrew Ference said. “You do almost the exact same thing where you have to just kind of leave it behind you and clear your mind and prepare for the next one. So obviously it looks like we didn’t do a good enough job of that, so especially against a good team it’s going to look really bad.”

The good news for the Bruins is that they won’t have to worry about the same thing Sunday in Detroit. With how low the energy was in the Garden on Friday night, it’s safe to say Friday’s contest won’t qualify as emotional, or, as can be concluded of late, emotionally draining.