The Calgary Flames headed to TD Garden to face the Boston Bruins on Thursday night, playing for the second evening in a row (with travel). The Bruins looked poised, structured and capitalized on some Flames defensive lapses at key times. The Flames? Well, they were chasing for much of the evening.

The Flames’ losing streak was extended to four games via a 4-1 road loss to Boston.

The Bruins carried play for the balance of the opening period, generating more chances than the Flames (and better ones) throughout the period.

Midway through the period, 9:48 in, the Bruins lit the lamp first. The Flames changed lines and got everybody in place, but Tanner Jeannot entered the zone off the rush with speed and everyone seemed to follow him for a moment. That allowed him to pass the puck back to Sean Kuraly, who had a clear lane to walk to the slot and fire a shot. It may have glanced off Joel Hanley, but either way it beat Dustin Wolf to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

A few minutes later, the Bruins scored again. This time, it was another rush chance, with the Bruins executing a really nice sequence of passes after entering the Flames zone, ending with David Pastrnak passing to Elias Lindholm for a one-timer that beat Wolf to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead.

First period shots were 13-7 Bruins. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 12-5 Bruins and high-danger scoring chances were 4-3 Flames.

The second period was more even, with the Flames pressing and the Bruins, possibly realizing they had a two goal lead, sat back a bit and seemed to wait for the Flames to make mistakes. The Flames pressed hard, but eventually the Bruins scored again.

With just under six minutes left in the period, the Bruins cycled around in the Flames zone. Mason Lohrei got the puck at the left point, patiently toe-dragged around a sliding block attempt from Adam Klapka, then shot the puck past Wolf to make it 3-0 Boston.

With 2:01 left in the period, the Bruins scored again. This time, Casey Middelstadt fired the puck on net. Wolf made the initial save, but Mittelstadt rushed in before any player in a white jersey could grab the rebound, and instead Mittelstadt fired the puck past Wolf to make it 4-0 Bruins.

But 46 seconds later, the Flames got on the board. A Kevin Bahl point shot was deflected wide of the Bruins net by Morgan Frost. Connor Zary retrieved the puck behind the net, wheeled around to the front and decided to shoot, beating Joonas Korpisalo top-corner to cut Boston’s lead to 4-1.

Second period shots were 10-9 Bruins. 5v5 scoring chances were 14-8 Bruins and high-danger scoring chances were 5-4 Bruins.

The third period was fairly even, as the Bruins were perfectly content to play a smart, structured game and run out the clock. The Flames had some decent looks in the offensive zone, but they didn’t amount to much.

The Bruins held on for a 4-1 win.

Third period shots were 12-8 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 9-7 Bruins and high-danger scoring chances were 7-1 Bruins.

Just like in Montreal, the Flames’ in-zone defensive coverage had some big gaps at bad times. A few too many times, their coverage got bunched up in one area of the zone, leaving big gaps and tons of space for the Bruins’ skill players to do things with the puck. And while the Flames did have the puck a lot later on in the game, the Bruins did a great job of clogging up the middle of the ice and the Flames just couldn’t do enough to counter that.

Connor Zary’s goal was really nice. We’ll give him the nod by default.

The Flames were on the heels for the bulk of the first period, and Elias Lindholm’s goal to go up 2-0 really seemed to deflate their group for the remainder of the period.

Dustin Wolf started for the eighth consecutive game. As noted on social media by Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg, Devin Cooley is still not 100% after missing Monday’s game with an illness, so that likely contributed to the goaltender deployments over the last three games this week.

Blake Coleman left the game in the second period with an apparent injury, came back to the game, then left again (for good) early in the third period.

The Flames are 0-4-0 in 2026.

Join Mike Gould and myself right after the game for After Burner!

The Flames (18-22-4) are off to Pittsburgh. They face the Penguins in a matinee game on Saturday.

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