BOSTON — Morgan Geekie brought up the boos without being asked.
The Bruins forward said the team heard the crowd booing them as they headed to the dressing room for the second intermission during Boston’s 6-2 loss, and had no objections.
“I think up and down the lineup, we didn’t show up to start the game. We battled back a little bit, but obviously not a very acceptable effort,” said Geekie, who scored his NHL-leading 18th goal of the season. “We get booed off the ice in the second. We totally deserve it. We gotta get the crowd back into it. I thought we came out well in the third and battled back to 4-2. It’s a game at that point, but it’s hard to win games when you only play 10 or 12 good minutes.
“The effort we came out with today was just unacceptable. We’re aware of that. We deserve (the boos),” he added. “We’re going to come back tomorrow ready to play. We’re just going to try to put this in the rearview mirror.”
The Bruins face the Red Wings at 7 p.m. at TD Garden on Saturday.
With David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha both out, Marco Sturm said his team needed to be able to lean on other players coming off an eight-day road trip.
“We knew it was going to be hard coming back from the road. That was the biggest thing. Knowing a few guys were missing too. This is not an excuse,” he said. “A lot of guys have to step up and a lot of guys didn’t.”
Hampus Lindholm, who is the longest-tenured Bruin with Charlie McAvoy and Pastrnak missing, echoed his coach.
“Tough game for us. We weren’t ready from the. start,” he said. “We had some moments, but not good enough for our group.”