Let’s just cut to the chase.

Here are three things that every hockey fan in New England has become painfully aware of during the last three weeks:

The Bruins can’t hold a lead.

The Bruins can’t win a shootout.

The Bruins can’t win a game.

Stop me if you heard this before. Once again the Bruins raced out to a two-goal advantage Saturday while launching over 40 shots at the opposing goaltender. And once again they squandered the lead and produced nothing but frustration in the shootout.

Pavol Demitra made a slick backhand move and lofted the puck past Tuukka Rask to score the only goal of the shootout as the Vancouver Canucks rallied for a 3-2 win at TD Garden.

The shootout loss was the third in the last four games for the Bruins who are now winless in ten straight games (0-6-4).

There has not been any lack of effort by the Bruins over the past week, they had worked to enter the third period ahead or tied in each of their last four games, but have left the ice without wins each time.

Saturday they found a whole new way to fall apart. Barely holding onto a 2-1 advantage in the third period, it looked like Boston had caught a break when Vancouver defenseman Sami Salo shattered his stick and lost the puck near the Bruins blue line. Milan Lucic attempted to clear the puck out of the zone, but it bounced away to Canucks forward Tanner Glass who quickly drilled a shot which Demitra deflected in to tie the game.

“I didn’t get it,” said an exasperated Lucic, who has suffered through extended injures and scoring woes this year. “Bad luck, the story of my season, nothing can go right.”

Technically, the Bruins were still in the game at that point. They continued to pressure Luongo looking to regain the lead, ultimately outshooting Vancouver 7-1 in overtime.

But as soon as things went to a shootout. Well, you know the deal. Blake Wheeler, David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron were all shutdown by Luongo, setting up Demitra to secure the Canucks win.

There was more additional damage along the way as defenseman Johnny Boychuk was struck in the face by a shot by Mikael Samuelsson while killing a penalty with 11:38 to go in the first. Boychuk lay prone on the ice before being helped to the bench and he did not return. Coach Claude Julien indicated he will not be travelling with the team to Montreal for Sunday afternoon’s contest against the Canadiens.

“The only thing I know of is he’s at the hospital, and he’s being looked at,” Julien said. “He’s not coming on the trip with us, so that’s basically all I know right now. To tell you what it is exactly, the severity of it, I don’t know. He got the puck on the side of the head there so that’s basically all I know as well.” 

All in all, it was yet another very tough day for Bruins fans. Here’s more detail on three aspects of Saturday’s game worth considering...

SPECIAL TEAMS DID THEIR PART

There is no quibbling that the ultimate result was not what they wanted, but the Bruins special teams were certainly not to blame. The Boston power play connected on its first two opportunities and the B’s penalty killing unit was a perfect 5-5 in the contest.

Replicating a play they drew on during numerous occasions last season, Zdeno Chara dropped down low on the power play and made his way to the left post to tap in a feed from Marco Sturm from the corner just under two minutes after the opening faceoff.

It’s a play the B’s could stand to see work a lot more this year.

“Yeah, a lot of teams are playing really tight down low. But it was nice that it worked finally,” said Chara. “Obviously, Marco made a good play... he recognized that the [defenseman] were away from the net and he found me down by the goal.
Working on a second power play with about six minutes to play in the first, Marc Savard circled with the puck just inside the Vancouver blue before sending a wrist shot toward Luongo from the right point. Michael Ryder was set up in the slot and deflected it in for his first goal in seven games and a 2-0 advantage.

That was the end of the success however as the Bruins failed to score on four more power play chances, finishing the night 2-6. Still, a 33 percent rate of success is a good bit of work.

The Bruins penalty killers were especially adept at shutting down the Canucks top scoring brother tandem of Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Henrik began the day second in overall scoring in the league but the B’s held him without a shot on goal in regulation. He finished with just a single shot, Daniel had none.

The defensive effort was all the more difficult as the Bruins were down to five defenseman after Boychuk’s injury in the opening period.

THERE GOES THE LEAD

The Canucks got on the scoreboard 8:51 into the second period when Mason Raymond fended of Lucic and darted from the corner with the puck before whisking it past Rask.

Had the Bruins been able to generate any offense over the final 45 minutes of the game they could have squashed further hopes of a Vancouver rally. But holding a lead is simply not part of the current Bruins makeup. Take a look:

Jan. 16, the Bruins blew a 3-1 third period lead in LA, losing 4-3 in the shootout.

Jan. 21, the B’s squandered a third-period lead and lost to Columbus 3-2.

Jan. 30, Boston took a 2-1 lead into the third period and ultimately lost to the Kings again, 3-2 in shootout.

Tuesday, the Bruins had an early 1-0 lead against the Capitals, but lost 4-1.

Thursday, a 2-0 lead evaporates against Montreal and the B’s lose 3-2 in the shootout.

A Bruins team that was once a lock to close out games in which it had a lead is now ill suited for closing things out.

“I think it’s a matter of you taking a 2-0 lead and you had the opportunity, the real good opportunity, to make it a three-goal lead, and I think that could have made a big difference,” said Julien. “But again, I thought we still played well. And the third with, a 2-1 lead, we made that mistake that turned into a goal and that’s the end of it. The way things are going, I guess at this point, you dread seeing a shootout.”

SUFFERING IN THE SHOOTOUT

There have been four occasions during the Bruins ten-game winless streak when they could have secured a win by simply prevailing in the shootout. In fact, the last time the Bruins did win a game they did so in a shootout, taking a 2-1 victory over San Jose on Jan. 14.

But in order to win a shootout you have to score. The B’s failed to do so in Thursday’s 3-2 loss to Montreal and again in Saturday’s setback.

Rask has done his part, stopping 15 of the 22 shots he has faced in seven shootouts. But nonetheless he is now 3-4 in the overtime tiebreaker after Demitra’s game winner Saturday.

“It’s a shootout. And you try to do everything you can to read the shooter and stay with it, but Demitra made a pretty good move there,” Rask said. “I had my glove there, but he happened to beat me. So that’s it. At least we got a point again, so it’s something.”