BOSTON — There was no sugarcoating this one.
As euphoric as Wednesday's fight-filled offensive extravaganza against Montreal left the Bruins and a delighted Garden crowd, Friday's dismal showing in a 6-1 loss to Detroit was equally deflating.
But while the effort was lacking on the ice, at least there were no excuses being made in the locker room.
"I mean they're a great team, but we weren't ready at all," Bruins veteran forward Mark Recchi said. "For whatever reason we weren't sharp from the get-go and that hurt us. We know they're gifted and control the puck, and they did. We didn't match it. We'll have to be a lot better on Sunday. It was a good eye-opener for us. We haven't had one of these in a while so let's hope that's it for a long time again."
The Bruins get the Red Wings again on Sunday, as they complete the home-and-home series with a matinee in Detroit. While it would be understandable if the Bruins never wanted to see the Red Wings again after suffering such a humbling loss, the players actually welcome the chance for some immediate redemption.
"You definitely want to see them right away," forward Brad Marchand said. "You want to get your revenge as quick as possible. You don't have to wait a month or two or whatnot. We get them next game and we're going to be fine."
Center David Krejci, who had Boston's lone goal when he scored for the first time in 21 games, agreed.
"I'm very much looking forward to that," Krejci said of Sunday's rematch. "You can say that they embarrassed us in our building, and the fans let us know it. But we knew it. So I'm excited [for Sunday]. I'm not saying we're going to go there and embarrass them, but we are going to go out there and play our game. Like I said, they're a good team, but they're just people like us and if we play our game and don't respect them too much, then we can play good hockey and get the two points."
The Bruins didn't play their game in this one, and it cost them dearly.
"When we are playing as a whole group and everyone is prepared, it's a well-run machine," defenseman Andrew Ference said. "But if there are a couple of cogs that are off. Today it was timing that just seemed to be a little off. There was a little hesitation in a lot of the things we were doing and it only takes a couple little things to really make the system not run very smoothly."
Detroit is about the last team you want to face with any hesitation, as the Red Wings possess the skill and speed to take full advantage of any openings.
"They're definitely a very difficult team to play against, even when your game is on," Ference said. "If anybody is going to exploit hesitation, it's going to be them. They have a tremendous amount of skill to take advantage of a couple extra feet of ice."
Marchand agreed that Detroit is a dangerous team, but wasn't ready to concede anything, even after Friday's lopsided loss.
"They have a lot of skill, so we have to make sure we get a lot of pucks in deep and really hound them in their end," Marchand said. "It seemed like if we played in their end they got to running around a bit. There was a little bit of an opening there, so we have to take advantage of that.
"We have guys just as fast as them," Marchand added. "We can deal with their speed. We've done it before. We just have to play a little more physical on them."
As surprising as it seems following Wednesday's battle royale with the Canadiens, the Bruins were lacking in physical play and emotional involvement in this one.
"I think you can see, they just outplayed us," Krejci said. "They were just playing another level of hockey today and we just couldn't keep up with them. But we played bad. It's not like we played good and they just outplayed us.
"Obviously you can't expect to have a game like we did against Montreal and Dallas every game, but it's just looked like we had no emotion," Krejci added. "You could see it on the bench. They scored two quick goals and we didn't know what to do. It's a good thing that it came at this time of the year and not in the playoffs. We've really got to learn from it."
The Bruins won't have much time to study up, but they should at least know what they need to do to turn the tables on Sunday.
"It'll be interesting to see how we respond," goalie Tim Thomas said. "We've always responded well in the past to these types of challenges. I'd imagine Sunday we're looking to get a modicum of respect back, from the Red Wings, too. Probably the way we played tonight, they don't have too high of an opinion of our game either."
