Ahead of a ‘must-win’ game, Bruins fail to meet the moment

“It’s terrible. It stinks. Really, this whole homestand, going into the break — it’s unfortunate,” Alex Steeves said.

Tanner Jeannot dropepd the gloves at the start of Tuesday’s loss to Montreal. Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe

A game on Dec. 23 — even a pitched rematch against an Original Six nemesis like Montreal — wasn’t going to be the final determinant in the Bruins’ fortunes in 2025-26.

No playoff ticket would be punched — or rescinded — off a game two days away from Christmas.

Granted, that sound logic flew in the face of the commentary shared by the Bruins entering Tuesday’s showdown on Causeway Street.

“We can call it the most important game so far [that] we’ve had this year,” David Pastrnak said Monday. “It’s a big game for us and we need to bounce back heading into the Christmas break. … It’s a must-win tomorrow.”

“We need to win that game,” Nikita Zadorov added on Sunday, shortly after a 6-2 drubbing doled out by Ottawa. “We’re out of a playoff spot. That’s not where we want to be.”

That urgency was reinforced by the latest rut that Marco Sturm’s club found itself in. Ahead of Tuesday’s tilt with the Habs, Boston had dropped four out of its last five games — including three straight on home ice.

As much as this current campaign has been marked by several peaks and valleys, Sturm’s scrappy squad of skaters have largely answered the call this winter when dealt with adversity.

Boston’s first-year bench boss expected a similar script to play out on Tuesday night.

“Big game for us,” Sturm said at morning skate. “My guys will be ready today. That’s all that I can say. It doesn’t — I can’t tell you we’re gonna win the game, but I will tell you those guys will be ready.”

That energy was evident over the first few minutes at a raucous TD Garden — with heavyweight scrappers Tanner Jeannot and Nikita Zadorov both energizing the ground with bruising bouts against Josh Anderson and Arber Xhekaj.

For the first 20 minutes, it looked as though Boston’s longstanding rivalry with the Habs was going to be rekindled in another classic battle at TD Garden.

But as the final seconds mercifully ticked off the clock on Tuesday, a Bruins team harping on the importance of this regular-season meeting against Montreal looked an awful lot like the flat, disjointed club that had already squandered a five-game homestand.

Boston closed out its extended stint on home ice with a 1-3-1 record, punctuated by Tuesday’s 6-2 loss to Montreal.

Going into the holiday break, a Bruins club that had largely exceeded expectations so far this year has now lost four in a row — all on home ice — and has dropped five of their last six games.

“It’s terrible. It stinks. Really, this whole homestand, going into the break — it’s unfortunate,” Alex Steeves said.

“We had guys winning fights, guys laying their body [on the line]. At the end of the day, I need to be better — not happy with my game today,” Pastrnak added. “This one’s on me.”

For most of the first two periods, the Bruins largely traded punches with Montreal, peppering rookie netminder Jacob Fowler while snuffing out the Habs’ potent power play.

But, Boston’s fortunes flipped right before the end of the second period, with Elias Lindholm seemingly giving his team a 3-2 edge with less than a minute left on the clock.

Lindholm snapped a loose puck past Fowler amid a heap of bodies in the crease, but the goal was immediately waved off by the officials for goaltending interference, with the call being that Pastrnak interfered with Fowler.

Granted, it looked as though Pastrnak was pushed into the blue paint by Alexandre Carrier before brushing up against Juraj Slafkovsky and Fowler.

But, Sturm and his staff opted to not challenge the call, with both clubs entering the second intermission locked in a 2-2 draw.

“We thought David had his stick in the goalie’s pads,” Sturm said. “And he couldn’t move. And it was a non-goal call from the ref, too. So you always have to think about that one. They don’t like to overrule things, too.”

Things completely unraveled after that.

A snapped stick off a simple clearing attempt from Nikita Zadorov allowed Montreal to counter with speed through the neutral zone — ending with Zachary Bolduc beating Jeremy Swayman to give Montreal a 3-2 edge 7:04 into the third.

Boston opted to challenge for goaltender inference on this play after Habs captain Nick Suzuki made contact with Swayman before Bolduc’s tally. But the goal was upheld — and Boston subsequently assessed a two-minute, delay-of-game penalty as a result.

“Looking back afterwards — could we have made, maybe, a different call on one of them? Maybe,” Sturm said of those challenges. “But again, those are split-second — sometimes you have to make a decision right away. And again, we trust everyone. There’s a lot of guys looking at those situations at once, and we made that call, and today it didn’t happen.”

After that, Boston’s composure completely unraveled.

Already tasked with negating that delay-of-game infraction, Jeannot was whistled for a cross-check against Bolduc — giving Montreal a 5-on-3 opportunity.

Cole Caufield made the Bruins pay on that undisciplined stretch, scoring off another broken-stick situation to make it 4-2 … and with Boston still needing to kill Jeannot’s penalty.

Just 15 seconds later, Hampus Lindholm tripped Oliver Kapanen — giving Montreal another extended 5-on-3 look.

Suzuki scored this time, making it a 5-2 game in the span of just 3:04 of action.

In a game deemed as the most-consequential bout of the year, Boston’s propensity for ending up in the sin bin once again ended any hope of a bounce-back showing.

“I think a lot of the [issues] this year has been penalty trouble,” Viktor Arvidsson said. “That’s got to stop. We got to look ourselves in the mirror and be better at that and stay out of the box. Like, we’re not going to go anywhere if we keep taking that many penalties every game.”

The log-jammed Eastern Conference standings at least offers hope that Boston could right the ship in short order coming out of the holiday break.

Boston is currently outside of the playoff picture with a 20-17-1 record (41 points) through 38 games. The Capitals and Panthers currently occupy the two Wild Card spots in the East … with 43 and 42 points, respectively.

But after another ugly showing on home ice, the good will that the Bruins built through the first few months of this season is starting to dissipate as the calendar flips to 2026.

“Lose four in a row home. Yeah, it is disappointing,” Zadorov said. “It’s not what we want to show our fans. So we have a three-day break. We’re gonna get it together. We’re still there.

“It’s tight standings in the East. Now we’re gonna go to Buffalo. They’re playing well right now … We’ve got to come up with some points if we want to be a playoff team.”