A common terminology for the Boston Bruins since the 2014-15 season is Jekyll and Hyde. As repetitive as it gets, there are times where it rings true for Claude Julien and company.

In a span of 48 hours, the Bruins managed to showcase that to a ‘T’.

One night after they stole a point by overcoming a 3-0 deficit against the Capitals, the Bruins returned to TD Garden with the lowly Avalanche awaiting. For the second night in a row, however, they found themselves down by three against a team that has won eight straight on Causeway Street.

By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Avs extended that streak to nine and the Bruins were left scratching their heads in arguably one of their worst performances of the 2016-17 season.

“You want to have a good start and not fall behind right away,” captain Zdeno Chara said following the 4-2 loss on Thursday night. “Like I said, at that point you have to really chase and you put a lot more pressure on your team to be behind. So that’s something that we need to be better at, especially in back to back games.”

Whether it was the power play struggling to handle the puck, the defense giving the Avalanche too much space, Anton Khudobin not making timely saves, or not getting enough pucks in front of the net, the Bruins struggled in many areas.

The only potential silver lining out of this is David Pastrnak’s continued growth. The third-year Bruin notched a pair of goals to increase his total to 18 through 23 games. Those 18 goals are tied for first in the league with Sidney Crosby.

Pastrnak, however, wasn’t in the mood though to discuss individual accomplishments, and who could blame him?

“I’m sorry, I really don’t like to comment on my game right now,” Pastrnak said on being atop the NHL in goals.

As has been the case for most of the season, the Bruins have had to overcome a few obstacles. Come Saturday against the Maple Leafs, they’ll look to get off to a better start from the get-go, especially playing against a team that outplayed them from the start in the first meeting between the two of back in mid-October.

Which version of the Black and Gold will show up is anyone’s guess. Will it be the team that was relentless in their third period comeback in the nation’s capital? Or will it be the team that came out flat against the Avs?

Whatever the case is, the Bruins decision making will need to be better against Auston Matthews and company.

“The thing I would’ve liked to have seen is for us to be a little bit smarter,” head coach Claude Julien said during his postgame press conference.

“There a lot of things that we could’ve been better at, but at the same time you’ve got to move on here. To me it’s one of those nights where if we were smarter from the get-go, we could’ve had a chance. Now we have to move forward here and start getting ready for Toronto.”