“Average” was the word used by Bruins’ head coach Claude Julien to describe the Bruins play Saturday in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Put a below in front of that “average” and that’s how you describe the 2014-15 Boston Bruins.

For the first few weeks the Bruins were without captain Zdeno Chara, they managed to find ways to win hockey games. Finding ways to win hockey games is a thing the B’s are now struggling to do as they have now lost five of their last six and sit just inside the Eastern Conference playoff bubble, holding a one point lead over the Florida Panthers for the final wild card spot in the East.

Something needs to be done with the Bruins and something needs to be done sooner rather than later.

“Yeah, yeah. We recognized it before the game too, and we were just kind of caught sleeping there,” said Tuukka Rask. “So, I don’t know. We’ve got to do something, you know. Wake up.”

Saturday’s matinee against the Ottawa Senators was an important one for a Bruins team looking to get back in the win column against a team chasing them in the standings.

Losers of six of their last seven, the Bruins should have come away with two points. But thanks to Bobby Ryan’s shootout goal, it was the Senators leaving TD Garden with those two points.

With the loss the Bruins are still left searching for answers.

On Boston.com: Reality check – these Bruins are average

Injuries have been a huge factor in the Bruins struggles, but their problems lie deeper than that. The lack of a true first line right winner, a handful of prospects who are not quite NHL ready and a revolving door of line combinations are just a few problems haunting the Bruins.

The Bruins have been linked to multiple trade rumors ranging from Buffalo’s Chris Stewart to Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle and Nail Yakupov. Whichever route the Bruins decide to take, the team needs help.

The offense is certainly going to struggle without David Krejci in the lineup, but the bottom line is guys like Milan Lucic, Loui Eriksson and Brad Marchand need to step up and help carry the load until things turn in the right direction for the Bruins.

“I don’t know, I’m not trying to think too much about it. Of course I scored a lot of goals in Dallas when I played there, it was kind of a different system to play there,” Eriksson said after scoring his fifth goal of the season Saturday. “But hopefully I can keep it going, it was nice to get one tonight and hopefully I can build on that.”

En route to their shootout loss, the Bruins blew leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in a game where they played well at times. Credit has to be given to the Senators though as they continued to battle and remained a thorn in the Bruins side throughout regulation and overtime.

“There was no quit for once. When you’re in a situation like we are and trying to get back into the winning column and things like that, there’s a tendency to be really hesitant, I guess,” Ryan said after notching the shootout winner.

“When things don’t go your way, you kinda sit back because nobody wants to make that mistake and we didn’t do that tonight. We realized that if we pushed the pace, continue to do what they do, which is play a two-hundred-foot game and push the puck up the wall, we were going to exchange chances and we did right until the end, right? Take the shootout for the win.”

The opportunities have been there for the Bruins, especially on the offensive front. Whatever the reason may be, pucks just don’t seem to go into the net for the Black and Gold. The B’s are 22nd in the league offensively, averaging 2.47 goals per game.

“Yeah, I think that’s been our biggest challenge this year is getting the puck to go in the net,” said forward Milan Lucic who has just five goals this season.

“That comes down to it’s all about bearing down and making the most of your opportunities and we just haven’t done that this year. Including myself, I’m really good at finishing opportunities and so is this team. We’ve been in the top five in goals for almost every year since Claude’s [Julien] been here. When we don’t bear down and make the most of our chances you’re gonna have tough nights and not get wins.”

Sorry to break it to you, Looch, but the lack of goals is just one of many problems your team has.