After a 5-4 loss to the San Jose Sharks on November 17, a visibly upset Claude Julien sat in front of the media and called out his team.

“Yeah, I think we all know this isn’t good enough. We all know that we need to be better,” Julien said about his team. “I think we have to take the responsibility of having to be better.”

Don’t let the score fool you, the loss was by far the Bruins ugliest of the season. The team seemed disinterested and coasted through the game for 60 minutes.

The Bruins don’t have enough talent to coast through games and come out victorious. Not many teams in this league can.

Heading into the loss, things were too inconsistent with the Bruins. Through the first month and a half of the season, it was one step forward, two steps backwards.

Julien called for it to end.

“Well, it has to end, it should have ended by now. That’s the disappointing part. We can talk about a lot of things, but the most important thing is go out there and do it and show it,” Julien added. “It’s not happening, so that’s the part that I feel that we need to deal with as a group and we’ve got to figure out a way because we know this isn’t acceptable, and it shouldn’t be.”

Five games later it’s clear: The Bruins heard Julien, and they heard him loud and clear.

The Bruins haven’t loss since. Yes, a season high five-game winning streak is impressive, but it’s the way they are winning those games that has been even more impressive. From defensive battles to grind ‘em out, late comeback victories, the Bruins have added tallies to the win column in many different ways.

Friday’s matinee with the New York Rangers was no different. After falling behind 3-2 thanks to J.T. Miller’s power play goal at 9:28 of the third period, the Bruins showed as much character as they have all season as they scored twice in 2:03 in the final minutes of regulation to complete their second comeback in as many games.

Julien too would agree that the win was most around the hockey world call a “character win.”

“Absolutely. I think we knew it was going to be a tough game,” Julien said after the “Black Friday” victory. “I thought we came to play tonight – this afternoon – I guess there was you know, back and forth where momentum switched around you know, but we just stuck with it. Of course when you go down 3-2, the way we battled back to win it certainly makes it a character win.”

That character word was a popular one after Friday’s contest.

“Yeah, we showed a lot of character tonight. I think we have to be really happy about it. How we finished the game, it shows that we’re learning, and we’re coming together as a team,” added forward Brad Marchand. “These are games you have to know how to win, and it’s great that we have different guys stepping up every night.”

A lot of things have changed and changed for the better since the loss to the Sharks. From the penalty kill to the play of Ryan Spooner to the emergence of Frank Vatrano, the Bruins look like a team on a mission.

“We’re finding ways to win, you know. There’s been times when our game hasn’t been there, but we still get the end result, maybe get it in overtime or get it in a shootout,” said Bruins forward Jimmy Hayes, who took on his brother Kevin for the first time as a Bruin Friday afternoon.

“But tonight we may have put together a full 60 minutes, and you could just see it on the bench and the guys how focused they were and how committed they were, making sure that we were going to get the two points today.”

After the lackluster loss back on the 17th, the Bruins needed to respond. Julien’s seat was as hot as it had been at any point this season. The team was on the verge of falling out of the playoff bubble, and many were starting to see the Bruins as a squad who would be easy to play against each night.

What a difference 10 days make.

“I think we’re starting to show a lot more confidence right now, and we’re starting to play the way that we knew we could. And even, like I said before, when we don’t deserve to win games we’re finding ways to win which is what you have to do,” Marchand added.

“You’re not going to be perfect every night, but you still have to be able to win games and give yourselves the opportunity to win. So it’s good to see, and hopefully we keep it going.”

The Bruins will head to Western Canada this week for three north of the border. The road has been very friendly to the Black and Gold, who have won eight of ten away from TD Garden.

By the time they return home from their first west coast trip, they may be looking back at that loss to the Sharks and talking about how that was the turning point of their season.

Turned it the right direction it has.