Thanks to their recent stretch of hot play, a lot of eyes have been on the Boston Bruins of late. Watching to see who these Bruins really are, a lot has been learned in the last three weeks. In what was considered a “measuring stick” game by many inside the Bruins locker room we learned that the Black and Gold are not quite there, yet.

For 40 minutes Tuesday night against a Blues team that is in the top three of the Western Conference, the Bruins skated stride for stride with their opponent. Trading chances and playing equally physical hockey, the two were scoreless through two periods.

In the third the Blues outplayed the Bruins to notch the 2-0 victory, their 21st of the season. Playing a night prior in Philadelphia, the Blues didn’t follow the script. Against the norm, the Blues found their legs in the third period and pulled away from the Bruins with two goals in just over five minutes.

A measuring stick game indeed, we can see now that the Bruins are close to being one of the league’s top teams.

“Well, I mean, measuring stick – we were playing a pretty good team and we could see how we fared against some of those teams,” head coach Claude Julien told the media after the loss. “I thought for two periods we were fine. At the end of the night, I think the biggest thing was that we didn’t, I didn’t think we worked hard enough to get on the inside, they did a good job of keeping us on the outside.”

Forward Brad Marchand agrees that the Bruins are not on the level of the Blues and the other top teams in the league, but he knows that they’re not too far off.

“I think we’re right there. They’re obviously a really good team, and they have a lot of depth, and I thought we had a really good game tonight,” said Marchand. ”So it was something we can build on, but to this point, we’ve done really well, and we have to be happy with where we’re at, but we just want to continue to get better.”

The Bruins haven’t fared too well against some of the better teams in the NHL so far this season, so to play pretty well against the Blues is a good sign for a team who has seemed to finally find its identity.

Tuesday’s loss was just the Bruins second regulation loss in their last 16 games. After a stretch of hockey that saw them climb up the Atlantic Division standings, the Bruins sit one point behind the Montreal Canadiens entering the holiday break.

As frustrating as the loss to the Blues was, especially with all the chances they had, the loss may not entirely be a bad thing for the Bruins. With confidence sky high leading into Tuesday’s matchup, the defeat may help the team come back down to earth and search for that hunger again.

“It should, yeah. I mean we knew they’re a good team. They’re a big team, experienced team, and what’s frustrating is that we gave them two breakaways in the third period,” said Tuukka Rask, who made 25 saves in the loss.

“I guess we should be pretty experienced too for that not to happen but, you know, I mean it’s one of those losses that you still feel like you played a decent game, but you never can’t be satisfied with a loss, but I thought we played a pretty decent game. Couldn’t get too many scoring chances but not a bad game.”

Tuesday’s first of two this season with the Blues wasn’t the Bruins best, but it wasn’t close to their worse. A few bounces go their way and the talk inside the Bruins room postgame would be about how they were able to extend their streak and knock off one of the league’s best. Instead, we are left looking at a Bruins squad that is on the bubble of being an elite team.

The Bruins are certainly satisfied with where they are at in the standings. But at the same time, they know they need to continue to build off of things and continue to climb upwards.

“We have to be happy with where we’re at, but it’s a really tight race right now, and we can’t be satisfied,” Marchand added. “We still have to continue to be better, and improve on our game every day.”

If Marchand and company continue to improve, it’s only a matter of time before other teams in the league will be using games against the Bruins as measuring sticks.