■ They have scored only five times in their last three games, and only two of those goals have been delivered by forwards (Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand). Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, and Joe Corvo (yesterday’s lone ranger on the scoresheet), all have shown more touch over the last three games than 10 of the Boston forwards.
■ For the 10th time in as many games, the Bruins failed to carry a lead into the third period. A 1-0 deficit grew to 2-0 when the reformed Matt “The Widowmaker’’ Cooke popped one behind Tim Thomas at 1:53 of the third. The Bruins have been outscored, 16-10, in Periods 1 and 2 of those 10 games.
■ The No. 1 line, with Rich Peverley filling in at right wing alongside Milan Lucic and David Krejci, failed to get a shot on net in a combined 46:13 of ice time. Having seen enough, ever-patient coach Claude Julien benched Peverley late in the third and tried Chris Kelly in the No. 1 RW slot. Julien later cobbled together a Benoit Pouliot-Krejci-Kelly combination. To no avail.
“We still need more out of certain guys,’’ said Julien. “There were a few guys banged up. I wanted to find some sort of a little spark when we were down, 2-0. Our guys, you could sense it on the bench that the second goal really hurt a lot. I wanted to give the team another spark.’’
■ The defending Stanley Cup champs are now 1-3-0 since their Bruins Minus-1 visit to the White House. This is their worst stretch since their Blue October start of 3-7-0. Thomas, their lone dissenter on the trip to Pennsylvania Avenue, had won three straight before yesterday. When asked after the defeat what he thought of Thomas’s play, Julien said, “I’m not going to start dissecting every player one by one, that’s not what we do here. As a team, I think we were much better.’’
■ Finally, for a team that prides itself on physical play and making the Garden a tough place for opponents to visit, the Bruins were outhit, 28-17. Pittsburgh forward Chris Kunitz landed six hits - the equal of all six Boston defensemen.
