Riding a season long four-game winning streak, the Bruins got some help on Wednesday night when the Oilers snapped the Panthers’ five-game win streak in Sunrise.

Unfortunately for the Black and Gold, they couldn’t help their own cause.

In a game where two points were in sight, a combination of sloppy defense, bad bounces and a couple of missed calls went against the Bruins and went in favor of the Ducks in Anaheim on Wednesday night. The 5-3 loss puts the Bruins back on the outside looking in of a playoff spot entering Thursday’s game in Los Angeles.

Here is what we learned during the first loss of the Bruce Cassidy era.

Old habits creep up on the back end

For a team that only allowed one goal in the last two games, the Bruins haven’t really had that stretch of shutting down teams – especially in the second half of the season where self-inflicted wounds happen more often than not.

Wednesday night, those self-inflicted wounds came up in the form of missed clearing attempts and communication breakdowns in front of Tuukka Rask. From Kevan Miller being left alone on a three-on-one attempt in the second period – leading to Ondrej Kase’s fifth of the season – to Josh Manson and Richard Rakell getting a good bounce off of Rask and Rakell’s game-winner on the doorstep – with Corey Perry also looming on the opposite end – the Black and Gold couldn’t escape their own shadow on the defensive end, again.

All while the Bruins offense had problems solving Jonathan Bernier. The former Kings and Leafs netminder was stellar in his second start this season against the B’s en route to a 26-save performance.

“Things happen fast in this league and there’s going to be mistakes that happen,” Brandon Carlo said to the media on a night where he notched his fifth goal of the season to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 9:02 of the first period.

“Overall, it’s just how we bounce back from them regardless of what goes into our net and what doesn’t. I feel like we can clean up some of those areas, but overall I thought we played a really well in the game.”

The calls and bounces that went against the Bruins

On one power play attempt, the Bruins were robbed by Bernier’s diving stick save on Marchand, a goaltender interference call by Marchand that negated David Pastrnak’s tally moments later and David Krejci hitting the post towards the end of the man advantage.

Out of all of that, the goaltender interference was arguably the most frustrating aspect of those two minutes. Cassidy challenged the call on the ice, which obviously stood and as a result the Bruins lost the timeout and the right to challenge further plays.

That came back to haunt the Bruins when a missed offsides call led to Manson’s second period tall that gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead.

“It was at least a foot offsides,” Cassidy told the press. “We challenged [the goaltender interference] earlier and clearly it came back to haunt us later.”

“When you make those challenges,” Cassidy added about the goaltender interference challenge, “you’re quick, you consult and I thought Marsh was out of the way from the goaltender when the puck went in the net – he was outside the blue paint – but they didn’t feel the same way, so I lost the opportunity for later on [Wednesday] and clearly I could have used it because it was offside.”

Bruins defense jumping in offensively

If there’s one positive takeaway from Wednesday’s outcome, it’s the Bruins defense continuing their offensive output. Since Cassidy took over two weeks ago, the B’s defensemen have contributed 14 points in five games (six goals, eight assists). This was something Cassidy preached during his first press conference as interim coach, and, despite their inconsistent play at their own end, the message is being well-received by Carlo, Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug and the rest of Boston’s blue-liners.