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“Yeah I think so, yeah but that’s part of the challenge,” the usually up-beat coach admitted to the media.

After three days of working his club through double sessions of practice and going over plenty of film, it appeared Sullivan had finally gotten through to his club and maybe righted what had been a rapidly sinking ship. Boston came out with a ferocity and determination that hadn’t been evident in their last three games.

Through two periods, the Bruins dominated the Maple Leafs, out-shooting Toronto 27-15. They were skating, they were keeping turnovers to a minimum and most importantly they were staying out of the penalty box giving the league’s best power play only three chances to convert and also scoring on one of their own two chances to keep the game tied at one.

But then as it has all season in the third period, the roof fell in. The Bruins took the period’s first four penalties and watched the Maple Leafs score on two of the four resulting power plays to pull away for a 4-1 win. This was the tenth time the Bruins lost a game where they were tied in the final frame.

As they have throughout this slump, the players and Sullivan said all the right things afterwards and faced the music. But saying the right things and doing the right things are two completely different things. To his credit, it appears Sullivan and his staff has done their best to do the latter. The question remains, have and are the players too?

For one reason or another, this team just seems to unravel at crucial times and never recovers. Sure anyone can point to the young, inexperienced, struggling defense but there has to be more to the puzzle here and the players are the ones now who need to figure this out.

When signs that this team was going to struggle a rose, the team and the coaches constantly pointed to the new faces in the lineup or the new rules and as injuries accumulated, they didn’t use them as excuses but it was clear they leaned on them as a reason for the slow start.

But now they’ve run out of reasons and following last night’s debacle no one could find an answer for why the team seems to enjoy the view from the sin-bin in the final period and many times overtime?

“I really don’t know,” defenseman Nick Boynton said. “I don’t know what to tell you. We’re just not getting it done.”

That unfortunately has been the en vogue response at the Garden recently but until last there is never a follow-up or theory as to how to halt this trend. Captain Joe Thornton at least had a more specific explanation:

“We’re not skating, that’s all,” Thornton said.

True Joe and good that you can recognize that but time to go out and just do it! This team will never be faulted for not being accountable for their actions but they may be criticized as a team that can’t find a way to learn from and act on their words.

In that same response in which Sullivan recognized how the losses are taking its toll on him, he clearly showed that he still has faith in his team to turn their words into action.

“I love coaching this team and I love coaching these guys,” he said. “But it’s a challenge right now and its long season. There and are ups and downs and we’re going through a tough time right now. For me there are some positives and I believe we’ll find a way. I really do.”