No home fixup for Bruins

In fact, the Bruins barely competed, falling behind, 2-0, in the first period, then 4-0 in the second, and finally getting a goal from Danny Paille before Jonathan Cheechoo topped off the Ottawa win with his fifth of the season. Cheechoo was aided by the nifty block referee Dan O’Rourke put on Wideman - one so blatantly vaudevillian that fellow referee Wes McCauley must have been tempted to whistle O’Rourke for interference.

Overall, that kind of day, so bad that even the guys in stripes had their game brought down a few pegs by the stumblin’, bumblin’ Bruins.

“I’m not saying our team didn’t show up,’’ said Boston coach Claude Julien, his club in a 1-4-1 freefall that, if not stopped, soon could have it out of the playoff hunt. “But there is a ‘want to’ and there is a ‘can’ .’’

In other words, Julien’s club, just back from a three-game trip to California, lacked the energy and talent to compete with the Senators, revived of late with the return of the ever-slick Daniel Alfredsson (seventh career regular-season hat trick).

The Bruins were without regulars Marco Sturm, Steve Begin, and Byron Bitz, all sidelined by what the club only would identify as “day-to-day’’ injuries. That led to the return of Patrice Bergeron (broken thumb) from the injury list and Drew Larman being called up from the Providence Wanna-Bs for his Boston debut. Mix in the hangover from the Anaheim-to-San Jose-to Los Angeles 1-1-1 trip, and what you’ve got is a team low on competitiveness, weak on offense, and generally in need of a remedy for melancholy.

“Going into today’s game,’’ said starting goalie Tim Thomas (nine shots, six saves), yanked in favor of Tuukka Rask when the damage reached 3-0 in the second frame, “we were of the mind-set that we didn’t want to let that West Coast trip be an excuse . . . but say what you want, it catches up to you to a certain extent.’’