Nothing.

That’s what the Bruins showed against the Devils on Monday night to kick off 2017.

No spark, no quality chances, no discipline, no carryover from their sweep of the Sabres. Nothing.

The troubling trend of losing to bottom-feeding teams continues. Aside from their regular season sweep of Buffalo, the Bruins have fallen to the Avalanche, Maple Leafs, Islanders and Devils. Those teams all came into their contest with the B’s in the bottom two of their respective conferences.

Here is what we learned as the Black and Gold left another two points on the table after their 3-0 loss in Newark.

Chances hard to come by

Even with their offensive struggles, the Bruins’ ability to create scoring chances was never in doubt. Sure, some of those opportunities weren’t of the high-quality variety, but they’ve managed to at least fire pucks towards goalies as they sit third in the league in average shots on goal per game (33.6).

Only 22 shots on goal – 12 during the first period – were directed at Cory Schneider on a rather easy night for the former Boston College standout. The B’s best chance came at the end of the first when Brad Marchand nearly evened things up at 1-1 but couldn’t get the entire puck past the goal-line.

Pretty close. pic.twitter.com/w1AFQp9qri

— dafoomie (@dafoomie) January 3, 2017

From David Pastrnak’s cold spell continuing to seven straight games without a goal to Ryan Spooner and David Krejci each being held without a shot after coming in with a combined 12 points over their last five games, the Bruins’ clearly didn’t have the effort they needed offensively.

Where’s the response?

Just 4:12 in with a scrambling Bruins defense and Tuukka Rask out of position, PA Parenteau banked home his 11th of the year to give the Devils that early lead. Aside from a Colin Miller fight with Miles Wood later in the opening stanza, there was very little pushback from the Black and Gold.

Goal 11 for #️⃣1️⃣1️⃣. #BOSvsNJD pic.twitter.com/lfL6E3k7Jh — New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) January 3, 2017

Whatever energy the Bruins had left in the proverbial gas tank was emptied by the time Sergei Kalinin notched his second of the year 1:44 into the third to extend the Devils lead to 2-0.

Instead of responding like a team who had their backs against the wall, the Bruins let adversity get to them against a Devils squad that came into Monday’s game having gone 4-9-2 in their last 15.

“I think we had one of those flat games from start to finish,” head coach Claude Julien told NESN’s Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley postgame. “We just seemed to have nothing happening for us.”

Killing penalties – and their own flow

The lone silver lining – if you want to call it that – is the Bruins’ penalty kill going a perfect 6-for-6. But the B’s continued success on the PK, which sits second in the NHL at a success rate of 87.6 percent, was overshadowed by everything that went wrong for them, including untimely penalties.

The Bruins spent one-fifth of the game killing penalties. That’s hardly a winning formula on any given night, let alone when chasing the game from the start.

For a team that made two crucial first period kills on a 5-on-3 and an Adam McQuaid double minor while trailing 1-0, the Bruins should have fed off that momentum. Instead, aside from Marchand’s close call at the end of the opening stanza, the Black and Gold couldn’t escape their own shadow on another frustrating night.

“It was pretty obvious from top to bottom that everyone didn’t show up,” Patrice Bergeron told reporters. “You can’t win, no matter who you’re playing in this league. Teams are too good. That was a perfect example tonight.”

Moving on…

The Bruins will take Tuesday off before returning to practice on Wednesday. They’ll have one tilt on Garden ice against Connor McDavid, Milan Lucic and the talented Oilers before heading on their four-game road trip.

By the time they return to Warrior Ice Arena in less than 48 hours, the Bruins could find themselves sitting in fourth place in the Atlantic Division. A Tampa Bay win over Winnipeg would put them back on the outside looking in for eighth in the East.