As Bruins coach Claude Julien answered questions from NESN’s Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley, he couldn’t help but feel ticked after he saw his team come out with a lack of urgency in their 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night.

“This is as frustrating as it’s ever been in my coaching career,” Julien stated.

That frustration began with the Bruins’ hated rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, skated circles around them Sunday night en route to a season sweep. It continued on Tuesday when the B’s failed to convert on a five-minute and four-minute power play and allowed the Dallas Stars to score two shorthanded goals – the first time the Black and Gold gave up a shorthanded goal all season – en route to their second straight loss.

On Friday, it was a time for the Bruins to right the ship in the first of a five-game road trip against a Canucks team that is also fighting for their playoff lives out in the Western Conference. They didn’t.

From the get-go, it was clear that Julien’s Bruins lacked a sense of urgency, especially after Shawn Matthias scored twice during the first five-plus minutes. Both goals resulted in defensive breakdowns, including Dougie Hamilton’s ill-advised turnover from behind the net on Matthias’ second goal.

“Mistakes in our defensive zone play today, it was awful,” Tuukka Rask told reporters inside the Rogers Arena visiting dressing room afterwards. “It’s hockey, that’s how it goes sometimes, we just have to fix those things.”

With the team struggling defensively, Julien tried to mix up his pairings to start Friday’s contest. Hamilton, who had been skating with Zdeno Chara on the top pairing for the last several weeks, was bumped to the second defensive unit alongside Dennis Seidenberg. Chara was joined by Kevan Miller, while Adam McQuaid, who had his share of problems with Seidenberg on the second unit, was bumped down to the last pairing with Torey Krug.

Those pairings were short lived after Krug and McQuaid’s miscommunication and Hamilton’s turnover put the Bruins in an early hole. The rest of the game was much of the same for the B’s blue-line, highlighted by Seidenberg running into Rask in the third period – shortly after Chris Kelly pulled the team within one at 3-2 – that led to Matthias’ hat trick.

Instead of looking like a cohesive unit, the Bruins defense resembled a collection of characters from Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

“It’s not to discredit Vancouver, they took advantage of what we gave them,” Julien said to reporters. “How easy we made it [for them] with those kind of gifts is mind boggling. Some of those decision you make is basically your responsibility, and, you know, you kind of wonder what some of those decisions ‘what’s behind the thought?'”

In January, the Bruins looked like a team that was ready to make a push up the Eastern Conference standings. They were an impressive 8-1-3 in 12 games during the first month of 2015 and had created some distance from the teams on the outside looking in of the playoffs.

Now, the Bruins are looking like a team that struggled in December. They’ve lost four of their first five games in February and the Florida Panthers, with a game in hand, are now four points behind Boston for the final wild card spot.

“It’s about executing really,” Bergeron said. “Going back to January, I think we weren’t complicating things, keeping it simple and not complicating things – taking what was there. Right now, we’re forcing plays – especially in our zone – and that’s where we get in trouble and we go back on our heels. So it’s going back to executing and having a way better pace to our game.”

Certainly a lack of urgency wasn’t missing from Bergeron, who made it 2-1 off his own rebound midway through the first. That’s what the Bruins expect from one of their leaders.

The rest of the team didn’t follow Bergeron’s lead, however.

And now the Bruins have to find a way to right that ship again – beginning Monday with their second game of the trip against the Calgary Flames. Otherwise, they could be one team on the outside looking in of a playoff spot.

“It’s obviously frustrating,” said Kelly. “At the end of the day, we’re the only ones who can correct it, and, you know, we need to in order to have any chance at the postseason.”