Is it time to start investigating the curse of GaryBettmanino ?

One month after raising their retired numbers to the top of Fenway Park as part of the Winter Classic, the Bruins still have not won a home game at TD Garden.

That drought continued on Saturday, when Jarret Stoll scored the deciding goal in the sixth round of the shootout to lift the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-2 victory over the Bruins. Although the B’s were able to play another generally sound game and earn a much-needed point in the standings, they have now lost seven straight games (0-5-2).

Moreover, the Bruins are 0-5-1 at home since taking a 2-1 overtime win at Fenway on New Year’s Day. When they hit the Garden ice against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, the Bruins will have gone an entire month without winning in their own building. The six straight home losses for the Bruins represent the longest such streak since the 1924-25 team lost 11 straight, 85 years ago.

“We played hard as a team tonight. It’s not going to happen overnight,” said center Marc Savard, who picked up his second assist in as many games since returning to the lineup in Friday’s 2-1 loss in Buffalo. “The signs are heading in the right direction. If we keep playing like this we are going to keep our heads up. We’re proud of the effort.”

With Marco Sturm and Steve Begin returning to the lineup against the Kings, the Bruins started to resemble the team that won hockey games earlier this season. The odds are improving that the B’s will soon get back to leaving the ice with two points. For now, however, that time has not yet arrived.

Trailing 1-0 in the second period, Sturm drew Boston even and Mark Recchi scored early in the third to put the Bruins in front 2-1 with 18:40 to play. But Kings center Anze Kopitar tied the game by beating Tim Thomas with a nasty wrist shot from the right circle just 3:20 after Recchi had put Boston ahead.

When neither team scored in overtime, Kopitar, Ryan Smyth and Stoll scored for LA in the shootout with Michael Ryder and Savard helping the Bruins stay alive until the sixth round.

That’s as close at the Bruins got to ending their longest losing streak in 13 years.

“There’s frustration all around us, not just the players themselves, but there’s frustration all around us,” coach Claude Julien said. “We’ve kind of got to fight our way through this. We’re the only ones who can do it, so it’s up to us to keep our heads up and keep working hard and keep competing hard, and at one point you know that you may end up getting a break.”

Here are three things we learned as the Bruins continue their effort to get back to winning hockey games.

THE GOAL-SCORING PIECES MAY BE COMING BACK IN PLACE

The Bruins’ current slide coincided with the loss of Sturm to an undisclosed injury in Los Angeles two weeks ago. Without their leading goal scorer, the B’s had floundered with a 0-5-1 record, scoring just eight goals over six games in the process.

In his return to the lineup on Saturday, Sturm skated the left wing on a line centered by Bergeron with Recchi on the right. Savard continued to center for Milan Lucic and Miroslav Satan, giving Boston two lines that created consistent scoring chances Saturday.

The Bruins also created significant power-play pressure but had come up empty on several chances, including a five-on-three advantage for 30 seconds midway through the second period. Presented with yet another power play, thanks to delay of game call on Brandon Segal for shooting the puck out of the Kings’ defensive zone, Boston finally got on the scoreboard.

Kings second-year star defenseman Drew Doughty attempted to clear the puck, but it hit lineseman Jonny Murray and fell near Savard, who quickly moved it to Sturm in the slot. Sturm hesitated, allowing Doughty to sprawl past him, before firing the puck by Quick.

“It was the first time in a while where we had a nice break,” said Sturm, who now has a team-best 16 goals on the season. “The puck hit the referee and [Savard] just made a nice play across, I waited a little bit and saw the guy sliding and then I shot.”

Recchi also added a power play tally to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead in the third period. The reunited Bergeron, Sturm and Recchi line finished the night with a combined 13 shots, with Bergeron having a game-best seven shots on goal.

Sturm did not seem to miss a beat getting back on track.

“Marco always plays great and he was good for us again tonight and he had some good legs,” said Bergeron.

STUART GAVE THE BRUINS A SPARK

As the Bruins squandered scoring opportunities and failed to secure momentum early in the contest, defenseman Mark Stuart changed the tenor of the game in an instant.

Stuart stepped up at the L.A. blueline and dropped Kopitar with a solid body check. Kings forward Wayne Simmonds immediately went after Stuart and the two tangled. When things were sorted out, Simmonds was hit with a double minor, a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct.

Stuart received a fighting major, the end result being a four-minute Bruins power play.

“That was a big hit, and a big momentum boost for us,” said Savard. “We had a chance on the power play, some great opportunities.”

KINGS OF THE SHOOTOUT

Prior to earning a standings point Saturday, the last time the Bruins had secured a point in the standings was in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Kings in L.A. on Jan. 16. That shootout loss started the current seven-game losing streak.

Suffice it to say, it’s probably best to avoid taking on L.A. in a shootout. The Kings are now 8-3 in shootouts this season and have won eight of their last nine showdowns in the shootout.

As was the case in L.A. two weeks ago, Kopitar opened the shootout by scoring against Thomas. He used a slick backhand move to do so in L.A. On Saturday, he faked to the forehand and then slid the puck back and tucked it in with one hand. 

“No, I’m not going to tip my hat to him,” said Thomas, when asked about Kopitar’s goal. “Nothing personal against him, just he scored twice in the shootout. That was a good move.”

Thomas was also upset about yielding the game-tying goal to Kopitar, who beat him with a wrist shot through a screen from the right circle.

“Yeah, Kopitar’s shot was to the far side of the body, so I had to switch from one side of the body to the other. In the meantime, I lost it and it hit off my stick,” said Thomas. “I think possibly it might have been going wide if it didn’t hit of the butt end of my stick. And it went in. So I guess you could call that a little bit of bad luck, and still get a point. That’s a good thing.”

For now, a point is still a step in the right direction.