Sometimes, frustration can be used in a way that's beneficial to your club. That's no secret to the Boston Bruins, who thrashed frustration outta their systems with fisticuffs and heavy hits on the daily in 2010-11. But other times, it's merely that. Such was the last case last night in a game that saw the B's rack up 72 penalty minutes, compared to just 22 for the Carolina Hurricanes, in a deflating 4-1 loss on home ice.

"We’re not focused for sixty minutes. We’re a frustrated team," Claude Julien, who received a game misconduct in the waning moments of the loss, said after the game. "We’re not playing sixty minutes the same way. We get away from our game, all of a sudden the passes, the forecheck, the everything, were out of sync because we’re a frustrated team. We’re not focused for the rest of the game. The frustration is getting the better of us."

Dropping to 2-4-0 on the season, and losing to Carolina for the second time in less than a week, it was a tremendous goad-job by the Carolina defense -- specifically Tim Gleason -- that doomed the Bruins' bid for a comeback.



After a second period that ended with B's captain Zdeno Chara flying at ole' Bruins punching bag Jay Harrison, and nearly saw a duel between Boston's Tuukka Rask and the verbally-tough Cam Ward, the Bruins brought themselves within one in the third when Rich Peverley scored his third of the season on the power-play, snapping a twenty-something-straight drought for the B's man-advantage.

But it's the closest the Bruins would come to tasting any sort of victory on the night. Hit with a four minute double-minor to Nathan Horton for roughing up Gleason, a Jeff Skinner sell on a would-be high-stick from Zdeno Chara, and then a Dennis Seidenberg board on Skinner just moments later gave the 'Canes too many 5-on-3's to strike out on.

Adding insurance markers with goals from Eric Staal and Tuomo Ruutu, it wasn't a slant from the referees, but rather a complete meltdown from the Bruins that earned them their third loss in four games.

Taking six minors in the third period, along with three game misconducts, the more-than-agitated B's simply lost it. No other way to put it.

Did Paul Devorski let this game get out of control? Absolutely. And were eyebrows raised in a game that saw the B's tally 50 more penalty minutes than their opponent? Without question. But at what point do the B's look at themselves, realize that the Hurricanes weren't going to engage, and move on?

"Sometimes you go after a guy or a guy goes after someone and when someone comes after him he won't dance with the bell, you know that happens. He has a choice, sometimes you chose not to and that's part of the game but you can't really let that affect how you play," ejected forward Brad Marchand said after the loss.

Ward stops 33, but can't stop mouth in postgame presser

There were a few things I didn't understand about last night's game (that might be an understatement as I think I saw box scores blow up every minute), but one of those things was the heroic picture of Cam Ward that you saw some paint following his third straight victory. Yet Ward, for all intents and purposes, backed down to Boston's Tuukka Rask last night.

After getting in Big Z's face, jawing with the Boston captain from the safety of behind his (admittedly really cool) mask, the 27-year-old Ward wanted nothing to do with Rask, who furiously skated down from the Boston zone, slamming his stick on the ice as a 'Let's go' motion to Ward.

However, it appeared Ward wanted nothing to do with that, chatting it up with Rask instead. But that didn't stop the 'Canes net-minder from opening up about Rask coming down to the ice. "I was surprised but I didn’t take it as a serious threat. It is what it is. Nothing," Ward said of Rask coming down to challenge him. "Basically I told him to get down back in his own end and he did."

Something that Rask didn't necessarily echo. "I just asked him why he was jumping our guys," the 24-year-old said after the game. "I'm not much of a fighter but that's what the situation needs then I guess you have to do that."

But that's not all Ward said about the Black and Gold.

"The guy is eight feet tall and he’s jumping a player. That doesn’t translate as being very tough in my eyes," he said of Chara's out-of-nowhere bout with Harrison. "You know, I’m emotional just like everybody else and when you see that happening to your own player you want to, you know, I had some choice words too but it is what it is."

Note: Jawing with a guy while wearing all your gear and then wanting no part of Boston's goalie when he comes down to your end doesn't translate as being very tough, either.

What's next?

The B's will practice today before taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night at the TD Garden. The Leafs have grabbed seven out of a possible eight points this year, and will arrive to the Hub on the second leg of a back-to-back that begins tonight in Winnipeg.

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