BOSTON — The Bruins delivered one of their most intense and emotional efforts on Thursday, an entertaining 6-3 victory over Dallas that turned back the clock for a night as the TD Garden rocked like the original Garden that once stood next door.
But facing a talented San Jose squad two days later, the Bruins struggled to summon the same kind of energy, falling to the Sharks 2-0 before a much quieter capacity crowd at the Garden.
"Obviously we didn't have the same effort that we had the last game, and definitely didn't have the same energy in the building," Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid said. "We knew San Jose was going to be a tough team. They're a big, strong team and they played a pretty good game.
"The building was rocking the other night, and it definitely wasn't the same here tonight," McQuaid added. "I guess there's going to be the odd game like that, but it's kind of disappointing after the game that we had against Dallas, and then to come in and not be able to get the two points tonight, especially since we knew San Jose was going to be a tough opponent."
San Jose proved an especially tough opponent. The Sharks converted an early power-play chance with a goal by rookie Logan Couture 7:22 into the first, then proceeded to bottle up the Bruins the rest of the night.
"It was a tough one," Bruins center David Krejci said. "They had the lead after the first period 1-0, and then they were just putting the puck behind our D. And they kind of blocked the middle of the ice and it was tough to get it through. I think we found a way to get some scoring chances, we just couldn't bury them. You know you have to score a goal to win the game."
The Bruins outshot San Jose 26-18, but few of those shots came in succession as the Sharks did an excellent job of clearing away any rebounds in front of Antti Niemi and preventing many from even reaching the San Jose netminder.
Boston had almost as many shot attempts blocked by the Sharks as it managed to put on net, as San Jose finished with 25 blocked shots, led by defenseman Douglas Murray's seven.
"They were pretty much just standing in front of the net and trying to block everything they could," Bruins forward Blake Wheeler said. "Whenever we got anything through, it just kind of seemed to bounce the wrong way. I think about half the time we had good net-front presence and half the time we didn't, and that's not good enough."
Wheeler didn't see a lack of energy from the Bruins coming off Thursday's emotional win, just a struggle to channel it effectively into scoring chances.
"You should be excited to play," Wheeler said. "Saturday at 1 o'clock in front of your home crowd against a team you play once a year and a really talented team. I don't think that was an issue at all. I think guys were excited to play. Sometimes it doesn't translate into a victory."
It usually doesn't when you can't win the battles for puck possession, which is what Bruins coach Claude Julien saw as the difference in this one.
"There wasn't that many opportunities both ways," Julien said. "I think it was a battle tonight of two teams that I think are heavy teams, and if there's an area that they were better than us, it was in the battle. They won more battles than we did and so that's where I thought the game was decided. I don't think we played a bad game, and it was tight game from both sides, but we needed to get better along the boards."
The Bruins will need to get better soon as their next game will be against Montreal, their closest pursuer in the Northeast Division which pulled within two points of Boston with a 2-0 victory over the Rangers on Saturday.
"I think you keep moving forward," Julien said. "You definitely have to bounce back next game and we know what the next game is all about. This is one that you look at and you analyze it and you try to rectify that with your team and bring it to their attention. We're going to have more of those games coming up and we're going to need to be better."
