Trap games can usually be seen coming from a mile away. Some thought Saturday could be such a contest, but with the Bruins’ stretch of three Eastern Conference playoff teams in four nights, one would think would be no room for a trap game. 

In the end, it proved that anyone fearing a letdown from the black and gold after a convincing 7-0 win over the Canadiens at TD Garden was right. The Bruins came out more like the team fans are used to seeing at the Garden in matinees (now 1-3-0), and less like the team they had hoped they would see after Thursday.  The end result was a 1-0 loss in regulation (recap). 

“I think that would be a weak excuse,” Julien said when asked if there was a letdown following Thursday’s win. “We’re certainly not going to use that as an excuse. This is the time our year where you got to make sure that you’re able to push those games aside. There’s a lot of emotional games coming up in the future here, in the near future, and we’ve got to be able to respond night after night.”

Given all of the hoopla that surrounded Thursday night, maybe it ultimately wouldn’t have been a major surprise if the Bruins came out with a little less than they brought in their rout of the Habs, but Saturday did not like the effort one would expect against a potential first-round opponent. The Rangers, who appear set to go down to the wire with the Canadiens for the sixth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, could be back at the Garden around mid-April, and  if they are, the B’s will need to bring more than just a strong third-period effort. 

“Obviously, it sucks,” Zdeno Chara said of following up the Montreal game with Saturday’s effort. “We didn’t score a goal and we didn’t play our best.”

The Bruins didn’t get many opportunities Saturday, and when they did, they couldn’t capitalize. The team woke up in a third period that saw them out-shoot the Rangers, 12-1, but none of the best opportunities produces results. One example came when Brad Marchand had plenty of empty right in front of him before he missed point-blank with less than eight minutes to go in regulation. 

“It’s disappointing to lose obviously, but I thought we put up a pretty good effort,” Tuukka Rask said after the game. “Maybe it wasn’t a solid 60-minute game, but we definitely came out hard in the third and got our chances, battled hard. A 1-0 loss is always tough to take when you don’t score a goal after you score seven. But it’s just a game and we just have to battle back tomorrow.“

Players will never be happy to take a loss, but they seem to appreciate the position that they’re in. Given that they’ll face the top-seeded Flyers in Philadelphia Sunday, there isn’t much time to dwell on Saturday. They will likely have Tim Thomas back in goal for what should be a very good barometer of where the Bruins are in relation to the conference’s best team. 

“We’re playing teams that are fighting for playoff spots. We’re playing teams that are at the top of the tables,” Andrew Ference said of the Bruins schedule leading up to the postseason. “And then you’ve got teams like Jersey and stuff that are really hot -- the hottest teams in the league. So it’s great prep for us. So if we don’t bring our A game, it’s going to be a tough slog in any of the remaining ones.”

TOUGH TO GET THROUGH

It isn’t every day that you see Tyler Seguin lead all Bruins forwards in shots on goal. While that can be viewed as an example of the rookie’s improved play in recent games, it proved to be more of a result of the Rangers’ play Saturday. 

The Rangers blocked a whopping 29 shots Saturday, 18 of which came in the third period. The Bruins piled it on in the final minutes of the game, but their attempt at a comeback was heavily dented by Rangers getting in the way. Henrik Lundvist, who picked up his league-leading 11th shutout of the season Saturday, was tough enough to beat on his own, but the bodies in front of him made things even harder on the Bruins. 

“They got one goal early, then they just stuck to the program, blocked as many shots as they can, and just didn’t get enough traffic in front of the net,” Dennis Seidenberg, who led the Bruins with five shots, said after the game. “We did the last six or seven minutes, but that’s not enough if you want to win a game against a team like that.”

After having only eight shots on goal in the first period, the Bruins had to wait until 9:50 of the second to even get a shot through to Lundqvist. Johnny Boychuk ended up getting a couple of shots on Lundqvist to get things going for the Bruins, who finished the period with just six shots on Lundqvist. By the end of the game, the top line of Nathan Horton, David Krejci and Milan Lucic combined for just two shots on Lundqvist.

In a room full of disappointed Bruins, it was Shawn Thornton who best summarized the Rangers’ game Saturday.

“They did a good job blocking shots, they did a good job of cleaning stuff out in front of the net,” Thornton said, “and [Lundvist] did a good job stopping the puck.”