Bruins fans love their team – but not unconditionally.

That much was apparent on Saturday when, in the midst of a lifeless 3-0 loss to the Washington Capitals, they let their displeasure clearly known, booing the team off the ice after the second and third periods.

Hard to argue with the logic.

“It’s just a standard that is here. We have that standard. Fans have that standard,” said Charlie Coyle. “They expect a lot and they deserve a lot. It’s not a proud moment for us, but they deserve us to be at our best and that’s up to us. We didn’t give it to them tonight and that’s a shame.”

It’s not something that the B’s hear very often because there’s rarely been a reason for it, especially over the last two seasons. It certainly sounds like it’s not easily shrugged off by the players.

“You don’t love it,” saiid Brandon Carlo. “I have so much respect for this organization, for that Spoked B. We all do in this room. I think the culture that’s been established in years past, especially since I’ve been here, you come to work every single day. I love the fact that the fans and this organization hold us accountable when we don’t come to work, to play, to be at our best, that’s what you want from a fan base. And you can’t imagine a better fan base to win in front of. So I respect it obviously, but something I don’t wan to hear because that means we’re not doing our job.”

Captain Brad Marchand looked at it as the nature of the beast.

“They’ve got a short memory, but that’s their right,” said Marchand. “They pay for tickets to come watch. They can cheer when they like what they see, they can boo if they don’t. That’s up to them. But we know we have a very passionate sports city and very passionate fans. They expect us to win every game. It’s not going to happen, but they’ve got to see the effort and obviously they didn’t like it tonight.”

Vow to be better

What’s bothersome about the two losses in three games was the fact that the work ethic hasn’t been there. Behind the goaltending, that’s usually been the team’s most reliable trait.

“It just shouldn’t happen. There’s no excuse for it. I really have nothing to say to change that. It shouldn’t be a thing and we’ve seen twice in the last three games,” said Coyle. “There’s no excuse for it. I hate to even try to talk about it. It just shouldn’t happen. We need to address that and be better next game.”

Asked if it was a concern, Marchand tried to maintain a level head.

“It’s not concerning,” said Marchand. “You don’t want to see it happen, but it’s not concerning. We’ve just got to get back to the consistency that we had the last little bit and get back to our game again for the next one.”

While he didn’t sugarcoat the spotty battle level, Marchand tried to keep these losses in perspective. They’re still in first place in the Eastern Conference after all.

“It’s one game and it doesn’t matter if we lose 10-0 or have a game like we did. It was a bad game and we know that,” said Marchand. “We’ll have an opportunity to respond the next game (against Tampa Bay on Tuesday), that’s part of being a good team and being a professional, looking at it, regrouping for another big game here coming up. You can’t dwell on it. You want to stay even keeled. You don’t want to up or you don’t want to get down, no matter the situation, whether you had a great game or a poor game. It has no bearing on the next game. We know we have to do better. There’s a lot of areas we can be better. We’re not the last place team in the league just because we had a couple of bad games. We’re still OK here. We know that. We’ve just got to respond.”

Richard brings speed

Anthony Richard made his Bruin debut and a couple of times his speed was obvious. His backhander in the first period, the B’s first shot of the game at the 11:33 mark, was one of the Bruins’ highlights, sadly enough. He played 10:11 and was credited with six hits (courtesy in part of a couple extended stays in the defensive zone). He was also tagged with a couple of giveaways and credited with a takeaway.

“I thought he was one of the players that had jump and had tenacity on pucks,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “It’s too bad we didn’t get to playing our game. He had our best, or only, scoring chance in the first two periods 5-on-5, so I guess that was a bright spot.”

Questionable call

Montgomery felt Matt Grzelcyk’s spearing of Max Pacioretty in the groin area was accidental. It earned Grzelcyk a five-minute major and game misconduct.

“I think he was going in for box-out and the stick did spear him in the leg or … you know,” said Montgomery. “And the refs gave me a real good explanation as to why it was five, and why it wasn’t a match. So there was a lot of logic in their explanation, which I appreciated.”

A match penalty would have triggered an automatic review.