The Boston Bruins played like they went to one hell of a party on New Year's Eve.
Soundly defeated 5-1 by the Montreal Canadiens on Friday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, the common theme after the game from the Bruins was that they were embarrassed by their performance.
"I'd say more embarrassing than disappointing," said goaltender Tuukka Rask, one of the few Bruins to bring his A-game. "Embarrassing loss."
"There's no excuse," said defenseman Torey Krug, who said during the second intermission that the distraction of the spectacle of playing at Gillette Stadium may have gotten to his team. "We weren't ready to play and we didn't represent our fans and Boston very well."
"We had to find something to get back in the game and it wasn't happening," said Patrice Bergeron. "We have to find ways to step up in games like this and we definitely didn't do that.
"It's tough to enjoy (the Winter Classic) when you're playing catch-up hockey the whole time," Bergeron added. "Tough to get embarrassed like that."
Matt Beleskey: "I wish we could've been a little more assertive. These are types of games we'll see in playoffs. Maybe we learned a lesson"
β Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) January 1, 2016
Bruins head coach Claude Julien was a bit more diplomatic to the media about his team's struggles.
"We just had a tough night," he said. "Probably our worst game at the worst time. You have nights where things just don't go your way, and we just couldn't seem to find our rhythm, couldn't seem to find our game.
"We don't have a choice. Got to put these aside. Things don't get any easier. We're challenged right now and that's where a team comes into play. Got to play for each other."
