The Bruins march to the box and allow three power play goals in the loss to the Stars

The Bruins couldn't connect on passes, struggled with checks in the first half of the game and once again found themselves in the penalty box too often – all problems that have plagued Jim Montgomery's team since a win at Colorado.

Once again, the Bruins' passing game was a major problem, with too many landing on teammates' skates or, even worse, stars' sticks.

The slow march to the penalty area continued (Boston was whistled for five minor plays) and the penalty kill, so reliable over the past two seasons, yielded three goals.

Montgomery said the club's current lack of confidence was “quite significant” but there was a more pressing issue.

“Our attitude needs to go in a better, healthier direction, for example by trying to control what we control, which means trying to exceed our role,” the coach said. “Our attitude is not focused on the moment, but on results. And when you're results-oriented, you tend to take too many penalties because you get frustrated easily, and you tend to turn the puck over a lot because you don't want to work for the offense. You want immediate results. And that attitude of not being willing to work for what we want to achieve and our team play is causing some problems at the moment.”

Ironically, the Bruins opened the scoring at four-on-four in the first period, capitalizing on sloppy play by the Stars.

When defenseman Matt Dumba attempted a clearing pass behind the net, the forward-thinking Matt Poitras intercepted it. The Bruins forward spun around the net and spotted an uncovered David Pastrnak charging through the slot. Poitras fed it, and Pastrnak put it past Casey DeSmith for a 1-0 lead.

Matt Duchene equalized when he flew past a slipping Cole Koepke, who had decided to make a block, and fired it over Jeremy Swayman's shoulder to make it 1-1 after 1-1.

The Stars (6-2-0) overwhelmed the Bruins with three straight power play goals early in the second period. It started right at the beginning when Hampus Lindholm stumbled on the first face-off and Roope Hintz was able to run straight into the goal despite a Pastrnak hook. Swayman made the save, but the Stars scored just 20 seconds into the power play when Jason Robertson grabbed a slot feed from Jamie Benn.

Parker Wotherspoon (interference) was near the box and the Stars took advantage again with an unmarked Logan Stankoven shoveling a goal past Swayman (27 saves).

Pastrnak conceded his second penalty of the half, this time for bringing down Dumba on offense.

During the TV timeout before the penalty began, Montgomery called the entire team to the bench and took out the white board. It wasn't a chewing session, but rather a teaching lesson.

“I thought we weren’t physical enough,” the coach said. “I just said, 'Let's save this penalty,' and I wanted to start skating and hitting, so I kind of simplified everything so we could go north and be more physical. We’ve become a little more physical.”

Still, the message didn't get through right away as old friend Tyler Seguin fired over Swayman's shoulder for the third power-play shot, increasing the Dallas lead to 4-1.

“We have to stop punitive, and that includes myself,” said Charlie McAvoy. “I didn't get one tonight but sometimes it's bad luck with stick infringements but most of the time you can always put it down to effort. So yeah, we put way too much pressure on our penalty kill and we have a great penalty kill. We have a great penalty coach (in Joe Sacco) and at the moment we are not doing the job for Sway. So we have to stay away from the norm, and if we do that, we have to destroy it.”

The Bruins cut the deficit to 4-2 when Justin Brazeau scored his first goal of the season after a nice shot from Trent Frederic on the power play.

The Bruins (3-4-1), trailing by a pair early in the third, showed signs of a spark and turned the attack over to the Stars, who were content to break away and chase to close their cushion protect.

Despite the skid, McAvoy said there was no gloom in the locker room.

“I think we're in the first 10 games right now trying to figure out how to do our best and yeah, we don't like these results,” the defender said. “We admit it's different to what we've had in the past when we were running and gunning, but I think we're fine. We’re not panicking here, but we know we have to play better and we’re still trying to find ways.”

Jim McBride can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @globejimmcbride.