Bruins fall flat in ugly home loss to Senators

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Oct 5, 2026

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — We are now four games into the 2026-27 hockey season, and we already have the Boston Bruins’ first stinker.

The Bruins took aim at their feet and fired away, losing to the Ottawa Senators, 4-1 and suffering their first home loss on Monday at TD Garden.

The B’s added more youth to the lineup with the insertion of defenseman Frederic Brunet and center Matt Poitras but it didn’t provide any kind of spark. The B’s, young and old, made all sorts of mistakes to lead them to their fate.

Meanwhile, the Senators, given up for dead by some after Brady Tkachuk forced his way out of town in a trade with the Florida Panthers, looked like they are determined to prove they weren’t a one-man team. They sealed off the slot area defensively and were opportunistic on the offensive end.

The B’s have yet to get a goal from their top three goal-scorers from last season, David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha.

The B’s started OK, but that start evaporated quickly. Morgan Geekie got a clean breakaway and hit the post to old friend Linus Ullmark’s left, then a little later Geekie drew the first penalty of the game.

That spelled disaster for the B’s. They had gone into the game 0 for 6 on the power play but they at least had not made any disastrous mistakes on the man advantage.

That changed on Monday night. Just 2:03 after Warren Foegele was sent to the box for interfering with Geekie, the Senators had a 2-0 lead, with both goals coming off the stick of Tim Stutzle.

First, Pastrnak – slow to percolate in games this season so far — fumbled the puck out in the high slot and Michael Amadio took off on a 2-on-1 with Stutzle and Mason Lohrei back as the lone defender. Amadio got the pass over to Stutzle and he beat Jeremy Swayman with a high wrister at 7:39.

Then with the Foegele penalty winding down, Hampus Lindholm passed the puck directly to Stutzle. The young German star took off on a partial break with Lindholm trying to close the gap. Stutzle whiffed on his first shot attempt but that just drew Swayman out of his net to allow Stutzle to shoot it into the empty net. The goal came three seconds after the penalty was up at 9:22 but it was essentially another shorty everywhere but the scoresheet.

Then for the second time in as many games, the B’s faced a lengthy 5-on-3 after James Hagens was tagged with an offensive zone slashing at the end of another fruitless Bruins power play. Then Matt Poitras, playing his first game of the season, was called for tripping Carter Yakemchuk.

But thanks in part to the Senators missing the net and a couple of passes, the B’s survived that and got to the first intermission down by just two goals.

That didn’t last long as the Sens stretched their lead to 3-0 at 1:03 of the second. From just outside the Ottawa blue line, Hagens attempted a soft backhand pass to a streaking Pastrnak. Too soft. It was promptly picked off by Stutzle, who sent Drake Batherson off on a breakaway that was deposited behind Swayman.

The game then completed got away from the B’s at 5:19. Hagens backhanded clear attempt was just kept in by Tyler Kleven at the blue line. The Sens went right back on the attack, whipping the puck around until Amadio found himself with a half empty net that he didn’t miss.

At that point, coach Marco Sturm called his timeout but any hope of turning this one around seemed long gone. But regardless of that, a tongue-lashing was in order.

Sturm then put the lines in a blender and some players – namely, Nikita Zadorov and Mark Kastelic – started throwing their bodies around. But they had nothing to show for that. The Senators did a great job of collapsing in the slot and giving the B’s nothing.

The B’s got a power play late when Thomas Chabot tripped JJ Peterka on a rush and Peterka crashed hard into Ullmark. Peterka immediately went to the room but quickly returned. Ullmark, however, did not come out for the third period, giving way to Samuel Ersson.

It was an Ersson mistake that allowed the B’s to get on the board at 3:30 of the third period. He went out into the corner to retrieve a clear-in but could not control it. Hagens, dropped to the fourth line, pounced on the puck and was looking to make a pass to Poitras in front. But his pass hit the scrambling Ersson and into the net for his second of the year.

That was the only gift that the Senators were willingly to give on this night.

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