Coach Julien: Surging Bruins 'burnt out' in loss to Avalanche

The Boston Bruins couldn't keep their feet on the gas pedal right up to the All-Star break.

Holding a 2-1 lead late in Wednesday's game against the Colorado Avalanche, Boston allowed center Ryan O'Reilly to tie the affair and push it to overtime. Nathan MacKinnon scored the eventual game-winner in the shootout.

After having won six of their past seven games prior to losing to Colorado, the Bruins were done in by having to kill five penalties on the road, according to head coach Claude Julien.

"Those penalties took their toll on us," he told reporters after the game. "It’s too bad. It was such a close game. To have a (5-2) edge on us on the power play is unbelievable. There were some blatant missed calls out there. It’s getting frustrating. At the end of the day, your guys work hard. They kill penalties. 

"But at the end of the day, they get burnt out and run out of gas at the end."

Still, the Bruins managed to pick up an important point, capping a string of games in which they climbed back into the NHL playoff picture, as evidenced by this chart from Sports Club Graphs.

The club's resurgence comes in the wake of team CEO Charlie Jacobs' comments that being outside the playoffs is "an utter disappointment and a failure," and, more importantly, a return to form for Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask.

If the Bruins did indeed run out of gas Wednesday, the All-Star break comes at a good time, with Patrice Bergeron being the only player making the trip to Columbus.