Those gimme games, at least on paper, continue to haunt the Bruins.

One month after suffering a 4-2 loss to the Islanders, the Bruins had a chance to redeem themselves at TD Garden against an Islanders team that once again entered the day dead last in the Eastern Conference.

Just like their last meeting, the troubling trend continues. Another lackluster performance against a struggling team coming off a 7-4 loss to the Hurricanes on Saturday put the Bruins back under .500 at TD Garden.

Here is what we learned in their 4-0 loss to the Islanders during the Martin Luther King Day matinee on Causeway Street.

Warning not heed

As if the Bruins needed any reminder, Claude Julien put the memo out there prior to Monday’s performance. A routine quote discussing what they expect to see from the Islanders turned the continuation of an alarming routine for the Bruins.

“They’re a good offensive team. They’re a team that scores a lot of goals and they finish well,” Julien said pregame. “You don’t have to give them a ton of chances, but when they get them they normally make the most of it.”

That’s exactly what the Islanders did. A three-goal second period in a span of five minutes that included two tallies from Nikolai Kulemin – the other by Josh Bailey – put an end to the night for Tuukka Rask at the start of the third in favor of Zane McIntyre.

“Well it’s a 3-0 game, particularly where we had a six-minute stretch there in the second [period] where we came off the gas [pedal] a little bit and they were taking care of their end and kind of lulling us to sleep a little bit,” David Backes said about the middle stanza. “We finally took the bait and they capitalized on it.”

McIntyre didn’t fare much better as the former North Dakota standout gave up a shorthanded goal by Jason Chimera.

A step forward and another step back

Over the last two weeks, the Bruins were starting to find a little rhythm. They followed a strong offensive showing in their four-game road trip with a 6-3 win over the Flyers on Saturday afternoon.

After wins against the likes of the Panthers, Blues and Flyers over the last five games – and against two teams in the top eight of their respective conference(s) – the Bruins still can’t build off whatever momentum they’ve gathered and string together a good run of success.

“Last four or five games we were doing pretty decent, but tonight it was definitely a step back,” said Brad Marchand, who was named the NHL’s second star of the week earlier in the day. “We can’t have games like this, especially after playing a pretty good game last game. Definitely frustrating.”

The win put the Islanders out of the last place spot in the East. The Bruins’ next opponent? The team who the Islanders surpassed in the standings – the Detroit Red Wings.

The last thing the Bruins need – especially against a divisional opponent – is to take another bottom feeding team for granted. Otherwise, they’ll be leaving the Joe Louis Arena for the final time with nothing to show while taking another step back.

“I think that’s something that we talked about – to build from the last few weeks,” said assistant captain Patrice Bergeron. “It just shows that you have to show up every night and not take things for granted and I think we did that this afternoon.”