The Bruins entered play Tuesday night against a Carolina Hurricanes team playing for nothing but pride. The Bruins on the other hand had much more at stake. Sitting outside the playoff bubble by just one point, the Bruins had a golden opportunity to better their playoff chances with a win over the Hurricanes.

After falling behind 1-0 after a late first period goal, the Bruins battled back on Loui Eriksson’s third period tally to force overtime. But Noah Hanifan scored the lone goal in the shootout to sink the Bruins, 2-1.

Let’s take a look at what we learned.

Bruins lack finish

The Bruins loss wasn’t because of a lack of chances; it was their lack of finish that haunted the Bruins. 36 shots on goal and a handful of prime scoring chances wasn’t enough for the Bruins to earn the two points. As he has done his entire career against the Bruins, Cam Ward stood tall, keeping the B’s to the one lone goal.

“I think it was about sticking with it here and that’s what we did,” said Claude Julien. “I mean we stuck with it and we managed to tie the game up. I can answer 20 questions here or I can give you one thing, it’s an inability to finish and that’s the main thing here for tonight. Nothing more.”

After scoring a combined 10 goals in their last two games, the Bruins couldn’t muster up enough offense in one of their biggest games of the season. Tuesday’s loss could come to be the final nail in the Bruins coffin.

Shootout lineup comes into question

Ryan Spooner, David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron, Loui Eriksson and Torey Krug all failed to score in the shootout, but where was Brad Marchand you ask? After a rough overtime period for Marchand, the Bruins’ leading goal scorer was nowhere to be found in the shootout.

Julien was asked postgame why Marchand was not used in the shootout and his answer was, well, short.

“Hindsight,” Julien said.

Well Claude, okay then. “Hindsight” was apparently the word of the night as Julien used it three times in his brief postgame meeting that lasted a little over 2 minutes and 30 seconds with the Boston media.

Rask comes up big

After a rough outing Sunday in Chicago that saw Tuukka Rask pulled after allowing four goals, the Bruins top netminder bounced back and certainly is not to blame for the loss Tuesday night. Rask made 27 saves including a handful of big stops that kept the Bruins in the game.

Zdeno Chara saves the Bruins season?

The loss no doubt hurts the Bruins playoff chances, but they did manage a point, and at this stage in the season, every point matters. With just over a minute to go in regulation, a Hurricanes shot from the point trickled through the pads of Rask and was heading for the back of the net, but the Bruins’ captain was in the right place at the right time, keeping the puck out of the net and helping force overtime.

Bruins down, but not out

Sure, two points would have been ideal, but the Bruins are not dead just yet. The Bruins, Red Wings and Flyers are now all tied with 91 points. The Red Wings stay in third in the Atlantic while the Flyers hold onto the final spot in the wild card. Tomorrow night the Flyers travel to Joe Louis Arena to take on the Red Wings before Detroit heads to Boston for a very important contest Thursday night. Wins in their final two games and the Bruins will punch a ticket into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.