from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe

Their focus not nearly where it needs to be, especially with the dream of a Cup dancing in their heads, the Bruins stumbled along to a shapeless, shabby 6-3 loss to the Hawks Tuesday at the United Center.

On the heels of Sunday’s loss in Detroit, yet another non-playoff team, it was the first time in 2022-’23 that the Black and Gold suffered consecutive regulation losses, and it was the third straight time that they yielded the game’s opening goal.

For a club that has been a trend-setter all season, powering to the top of the NHL standings and winning 50 games faster than any team in league history, the trend they have set of late now has them concerned.

“Clearly, we’re not checking well enough,” said coach Jim Montgomery, sounding miffed over the continued inconsistency of his club, which fell to 50-11-5 and now stands 1-3-0 in the last four. “We’re also not holding on to pucks well enough.”

Keeping in line with recent troubles, the Bruins again were blanked on the power play (0-for-2), fell a touch short on the penalty kill (2-for-3), and overall were outplayed by a near-no-name squad of Hawks that in no way resembles the dominating powerhouse that not long ago rattled off three Cup titles over six seasons.

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Game highlights are below.