BOSTON — It was just four days ago that moral victories for the Boston Bruins were the only ones worth writing about. Two games and two losses later, nothing has changed.

It was good for the Bruins during their 7-5 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday that …

1. Morgan Geekie scored twice. Geekie’s second goal tied the score at 5 in the third period, erasing a two-goal Anaheim lead. Geekie’s tying goal came 25 seconds after David Pastrnak started the rally with a long-distance power-play strike. The Bruins pledged they would be a harder out this season.

“We know we fight. That’s great,” Charlie McAvoy said. “But we just can’t find ways to even get the point right now. We give it up right as soon as we get it. Got to find a way to change it.”

2. Tanner Jeannot engaged in his first fight as a Bruin. In the second period, Jeannot took on Ross Johnston, getting the better of the Anaheim tough guy. It was a good response by Jeannot after the Ducks tied the score at 2.

“After Tanner’s fight, we were more engaged. That got us going,” Nikita Zadorov said. “It was a great tilt. Guys are battling their asses off in here.”

3. Casey Mittelstadt continued his recovery with a first-period goal. First-year coach Marco Sturm kept Mittelstadt out of uniform against the Utah Mammoth on Oct. 19. Mittelstadt, moved to No. 2 left wing, has a goal and two assists in the two games following his healthy scratch.

Getting right to it 🙌 pic.twitter.com/zVwczLia1J

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 23, 2025

The 2025-26 Bruins do not quit. It reflects well on the players and Sturm.

But the way they are designed, there is no margin for error. Too many areas throughout the lineup are subject to leaks upon the slightest pressure. Sturm knows it.

At the same time, the Bruins are still trying to learn what Sturm is teaching. Given they are just nine games into the season, it is unreasonable to expect results with a JV lineup. Remember, the Bruins were the NHL’s fifth-worst team last year.

“Are we an elite team in this league? Probably not,” Sturm said. “But those breakdowns we saw today, it just can’t happen.”

The worst meltdown occurred one shift after Geekie’s tying goal. The Ducks had called a timeout. The fans who remained at TD Garden were rocking and rolling.

A defensive-zone collapse made it all go away.

Mikael Granlund’s dump off the end boards caromed to the stick of Nikita Nesterenko at the left circle. Mason Lohrei was square to Nesterenko. It was Lohrei’s man to pursue.

But as Nesterenko carried the puck toward the wall, Lohrei sagged back, anticipating a pass to Troy Terry in the corner. This caused Charlie McAvoy to hesitate. By the time Lohrei took a step toward Nesterenko, it was too late. Terry had slipped behind the flat-footed McAvoy. Nesterenko, given plenty of room by Lohrei, dished the puck to his open teammate. Joonas Korpisalo had no chance to stop Terry’s unguarded net-front goal.

🚨 Terry 🚨

A great pass from Nester and Troy roofs it!
We’re back in the lead! #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/nvyyJHk9lQ

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) October 24, 2025

“Both guys want to do the same thing, pretty much,” Sturm said of Lohrei and McAvoy. “All of a sudden, they got caught. It ends up in our net.”

Two nights earlier, Geekie had pulled off a similar trick. The No. 1 left wing scored a six-on-five goal with 1:31 remaining in regulation against the Florida Panthers to make it a 3-3 game. But at 19:34, Carter Verhaeghe scored off an unlucky bounce off Andrew Peeke to leave the Bruins without a point.

“It’s just embarrassing,” Geekie said. “To the fans, to everybody. It’s just, like, poor. Everything’s poor. It’s not a teaching thing. It’s not anybody but ourselves. Each guy, myself included, has got to look in the mirror and decide what we want to do and how we want this year to go. We’re faced with it pretty quickly. We’ve got to decide what we want to do.”

The Bruins have played only nine games. But losing six straight has put them up against it in a hurry. The usual playoff cutoff comes around Thanksgiving. The Bruins could be out of it by Halloween.

“We had one goal in mind, and we got the job done,” Sturm said of his team’s three straight wins to open the season. “All of a sudden, we go on the road and it piles up. It was quickly — like, in two weeks. Now we’re in a hole. A big hole. It’s also normal when you lose a lot of games in a row that you tighten your sticks. It happens. But those breakdowns in big moments, that can’t happen. Losing battles in our own end, that can’t happen.”

General manager Don Sweeney supplied Sturm with what both thought would be enough of a roster to make a playoff push. That does not appear to be the case through nine games. There may not be a Plan B, other than making sure the Lohrei-McAvoy tandem comes to an end.

“First of all, it’s early in the year,” Sturm said. “There’s a roster limit we have, I have. Not too many changes will be made. You can tweak a few things, but that’s about it.”

But the Bruins learned firsthand last season that Sweeney has no problems blowing up his roster if he considers the year a lost cause.

“You see friends walk out the door because guys don’t do their job, it seems,” Geekie said. “That’s the reality. I love every single guy in here. I know we have a great leadership group. The team we have is sustainable. We play a really good game of hockey when we’re on our game. But when we get away from that and have lapses like you saw tonight, it seems like it happens over and over and over again. If we can’t turn it around, the issue lies in here. If we can’t turn it around, obviously everybody knows what’s going to happen.”