"They played their game better than we played ours, in a nutshell," said interim head coach Bruce Cassidy, whose team has lost two of three. "It was a little disappointing at times that we were that stubborn…that was it to me. They played their game better than we wanted to execute our plan."
The result was even more disappointing, considering the significance of the game. Entering the night, Ottawa sat in second place in the Atlantic Division, just two points ahead of the third-place Bruins.
"I guess when you're down, 2-0, it tends to kind of put you down a little bit, but we battled back," said Tuukka Rask, who made 25 saves. "We got that big goal there, but in the second period you'd think we'd show a little more effort to make it a tie game. But I think they totally outplayed us in the second period. Overall, we just got outplayed."
Boston had particular trouble solving Ottawa through the neutral zone. The Senators thrive on clogging up the area between the blue lines and shutting down the opposing team's ability to create speed out of their own end - a calling card of Ottawa head coach Guy Boucher.
"It's tough to battle back when you play against a team that's back like that, they don't give up a lot of odd-man rushes or opportunities off the rush," said Brad Marchand. "We kind of played into their system there. We didn't get enough pucks in deep. That's the game you have to play against this team with the five guys in the neutral zone and really clog it up."