On Tuesday afternoon, Bruins’ GM Don Sweeney completed a trade ahead of the deadline as a bona fide seller for the first time in his decade-long tenure, dishing Trent Frederic and Max Jones for draft picks and a prospect.

On Tuesday night, the remaining Bruins responded with a performance that carried a distinct playing-out-the-string vibe.

That’s not to say there wasn’t any want-to in the B’s game. But with Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm not walking through that door any time soon because of injury and possibly another player or two headed out the door before Friday’s deadline, the B’s seemed to be in no frame of mind to beat the Nashville Predators, who came onto Causeways Street mired in 30th place in the overall NHL standings.

The Preds scored two goals in 63 seconds in the third period to finally leave the B’s behind, taking a 6-3 decision at the Garden.

What kind of effect did the trade have on the team’s psyche?

“I don’t think it should have too much effect,” said interim coach Joe Sacco. “We all know the other side of the game. With what happened today, you lose a great character guy in Freddy, great teammate and we wish him the best moving forward. But we still have to make sure we’re focused. We have a job to do. That’s the most important thing.”

That’s the theory and the goal. But with the B’s not being ready to play in the first period, it’s hard not to think that the trade — and the ramifications of it — played a part of in the mistake-prone, helter-skelter showing.

“It was huge,” said Morgan Geekie, who scored his 20th of the year in the third period despite being hobbled by a shot off the foot at the end of the first. “You do your best to block those kind of things out .But I’ve been here a couple of years and got to know Fred really well and guys have been here much longer and knew Fred when he was drafted. He’s a great person and it’s always tough when that happens. But you see it’s a business. I think a lot of people forget we’re human, too, and it’s tough to see one of your good friends go. It definitely affected us a little bit, but we’re all professionals and we’ve got a job to do and we didn’t do it tonight.”

In the opening 20 minutes, the Bruins made the Predators look like the team Nashville GM Barry Trotz thought he had assembled last summer when he sunk big money into free agents Steven Stamkos, Brady Skjei and Jonathan Marchessault.

They were all over the B’s, outshooting them 15-5 in the first and taking a 2-1 lead that could have been worse for the home team.

But the B’s took the first lead of the game off a Nashville gaffe. Pred defenseman Spencer Stastney coughed up the puck to Elias Lindholm below the goal line and Lindholm tried to stuff it home but Juuse Saros made the initial save. The puck, however, went right to Charlie Coyle, who deposited his 15th goal of the season from the top of the crease.

The B’s, however, were more than willing to commit their own faux pas just 1:07 later. Pavel Zacha had control of the puck and he wheeled into the defensive slot, attempting to gain some steam for a breakout. But the puck simply slid off his stick and right to Tommy Novak, who beat Jeremy Swayman to tie it up.

The Preds took the lead at 11:33 when, off the rush, Luke Evangelista fed Ryan O’Reilly, who had a gaping cage at which to shoot.

There was more evidence of life at the start of the second period and the B’s tied it up on an excuse-me goal from Jordan Oesterle. The little-used defenseman threw a puck toward the slot that O’Reilly tried to intercept, instead directing it past Saros to make it 2-2 at 5:08, Oesterle’s first of the year.

But a Bruin goal in 20245-25 season often means an opposition tally is coming soon. And sure enough, seconds after Garden PA man Jake Zimmer announced the Oesterle goal, Nashville regained the lead. O’Reilly won a puck along the right boards and made a nice cross-ice feed to Stamkos for his first goal since January 23 (he’d not had a point in 13 games until he assisted on O’Reilly’s goal earlier in the game).

As disjointed as their performance was, the B’s did not throw in the towel, tying the game on Geekie’s 20th goal at 5:35 of the third, set up by a nice pass from Zacha.

Again, the tie didn’t last long. The Preds regained the lead at 8:28 when Nashville’s forwards made it look easy against third pair D-men Oesterle and Parker Wotherspoon, with Michael McCarron feeding Marchessault on the slot to make it, 4-3. That one finally broke the B’s.

O’Reilly then added the insurance goal at 9:29, bunting home a Stamkos aerial feed. Mark Jankowski added an empty netter to finish off the scoring.

The B’s now have 19 games left. If they can’t play better than they did on Tuesday, it’s going to be a long 19 games.

“We control what we can control. And I say that right after that. We obviously didn’t control what we could control,” said Coyle, shaking his head at his own words. “But you can’t worry about that extra stuff, you’ve got to go out and make sure you do what you can to win games for the hockey team you’re playing for. That’s all you can do. When you start stressing and thinking about the what-ifs, you can’t control that with what they’re doing or what other teams are doing. You’ve just got to go out and do your job.”

Judging by Tuesday’s performance, that’s going to be easier said than done.