In a measuring stick game at the Garden on Tuesday, the Bruins simply did not measure up.

The Edmonton Oilers, both very good and very hot, came onto Causeway Street and had their way with the overmatched B’s, smoking them,, 4-0.

The NHL is populated by a lot of mediocre teams, but the Oilers are something more than that and the talent gap between them and the B’s was wide and obvious. The Oilers improved to 15-3-1 in their last 19 while the B’s stretched their season-long losing streak. It was the first regulation home loss since Black Friday agaiinst Pittsburgh.

Edmonton may not have won every race to a loose puck, but it felt that way.

The B’s also wasted a strong performance by Jeremy Swayman (35 saves), who could not steal the game with the kind of chances the Oilers were getting.

Now it’s just a matter of whether a loss like this will leave a mark on the B’s, whose hold on a playoff spot is tenuous.

In the first period, the B’s did all they could to hang on. They were outshot 14-4 and were lucky to get to the first intermission down just a goal.

That tally came at 6:33, when it looked like the B’s thought they could take a breath with both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the bench. But on a line change between the third and fourth Oiler lines, a couple of estimable veterans gashed the B’s fourth line.

Operating behind the Bruin net, Corey Perry spotted Adam Henrique, who’d sneaked in behind John Beecher and Cole Koepke in the high slot. Perry slipped the pass to him and Henrique wasted no time in snapping it over Jeremy Swayman’s glove-side shoulder.

The Bruins had to survive an Edmonton power play when Oiler goalie Stuart Skinner was run over by a Russian locomotive at 14:35. Nikita Zadorov bull-rushed his way down his off wing on the left side and tried to cut across the crease to get to his forehand. With a little shove from Brett Kulak, Skinner crashed directly into Skinner, with the netminder’s helmet going flying.

While Zadorov was given a goalie interference penalty – he argued he was shoved from behind, presumably – Skinner stayed on the ice to get his wits about him. He tried to continue, but the concussion spotter had other ideas and he gave way to Calvin Pickard. Skinner returned for the start of the second.

It was more of the same in the middle stanza. Swayman had to come up with two tough saves on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the first five minutes to keep it a one-goal game.

The B’s got a power play when Draisaitl upended Charlie McAvoy in the neutral zone, but that was another exercise in how to give the puck away and the chance went by the boards with nothing.

Then shortly after Swayman had to make another excellent save on McDavid in tight, Trent Frederic tried to change the vibe.

He locked up with Perry and gave him a few shoves. Perry wasn’t dropping them at first but he wouldn’t let go of Frederic. Finally, both dropped the gloves and Frederic pounded away at Perry before the Oiler hit the ice.

It wa a rare momentum of excitement at the Garden, but Frederic got the extra two for roughing and the Oilers made the B’s pay at 11:11. After Skinner stopped Pavel Zacha on a shorthanded breakaway attempt, McAvooy turned over the puck in the offensive zone and Nugent-Hopkins sent McDavid off on a breakaway of his own – and the world’s best player didn’t miss. McDavid picked his spot over Swayman’s blocker and it was 2-0.

If there was any hope left for the B’s, the Oilers extinguished it at 16:35.

Zach Hyman knocked down Charlie Coyle’s backhand flip-out attempt and he got it to Jeff Skinner behind the net. Skinner found Henrique in front in the veteran roofed his second of the game.

With the Oilers in lead-protection mode in the third, but the B’s could not make a game of it as Stuart came up whit some high quality saves on Brad Marchand and Beecher.

Finally, Viktor Arvidsson finished the scoring with an empty-net goal.