“I don’t think our team was doing enough for me to even have hope there with three minutes left to even get ourselves back in the game,” the Bruins coach said after the 3-0 loss. “When you sense it, you do it. When you don’t . . . we couldn’t even get to those loose pucks half the time. Whatever opportunity we had, we weren’t able to get that goal.”

Julien’s team, however, never gave him any indications that a sixth skater would even the playing field.

WASHINGTON — For stretches of Wednesday’s third period, with his team staring at the goaltending equivalent of Mount Everest, Claude Julien considered pulling Tuukka Rask to throw an extra attacker at Braden Holtby.


Julien made the ultimate condemnation. He stopped believing in his team. Because of that, Julien chose to concede the result instead of emptying his coaching toolbox.

Julien is in an unusual position. Throughout his career in Boston, he’s been faithful to his players. Where other coaches would pull the trigger on benchings and line changes, Julien has been slow to take an eraser to his lineup.

Now, with only two games remaining in the regular season, Julien doesn’t know who to trust. It’s why he changed his lines before Wednesday’s game — a move that blew up in his face. By the third period, when Julien went back to the lines that had helped him win five straight games, the damage was done.

The Bruins lost to the Capitals because of two reasons: a rotten first period – scattershot coverage, stone-handed puck management, and an inability to clear the zone gave Washington two goals — and a popgun attack against Holtby (27 saves). It’s likely that a shuffled lineup led to the trouble.

The Bruins entered Wednesday with a five-game winning streak. For most of the five games, Julien was consistent with his three top lines. Patrice Bergeron centered Brad Marchand and David Krejci. Ryan Spooner was between Milan Lucic and David Pastrnak. Carl Soderberg played with Reilly Smith and Loui Eriksson.


Despite the 10-point run, Julien chose to shuffle all three lines. Krejci moved back to center between Lucic and Pastrnak. Eriksson played with Marchand and Bergeron. Spooner centered Chris Kelly and Smith. None of it worked in the first period.

“Just the way we let them dictate the start of the game,” Bergeron said of the first. “Especially in a game like that, we needed a lot more. It was definitely a disappointing start.”

Julien reworked his lineup because he wanted Krejci back at center. It is his natural position. Krejci’s talents are maximized in the middle. Julien believed that by moving Krejci to center, a more balanced lineup could create and finish chances against the Capitals when they could not last Saturday against the Maple Leafs.

The line Julien wanted to improve, however, was the one that did in the Bruins.

In the first period, Lucic and Pastrnak had chances to pick pucks off the wall and clear the zone. They failed. This is nothing new. Their deficiencies in the wall game, combined with Spooner’s inexperience with defensive-zone coverage, made them a trick-or-treat line.

At 4:49 of the first, they got burned for playing with matches.

Pastrnak’s inability to clear the zone triggered a chain reaction. Lucic approached from the left to support his linemates, but fell. Krejci moved lower to seal off Nicklas Backstrom’s options. With the Bruins overloading on one side, Backstrom made them pay. The clever center threaded a cross-ice pass to John Carlson, who went upstairs on Rask for the winning goal.


“I think Looch fell, then there’s so many guys open,” Krejci said. “You have to make a decision who to take. I think Backstrom had the puck on his stick. He always makes the right play. Just a tough break. That happens in the game. You have to respond on the next shift.”

The disastrous shift was enough for Julien to replace Pastrnak with Brett Connolly. The Bruins are built on defense. They generate their offense by turning pucks over and making stout stops in the defensive zone. Pastrnak lost his coach’s trust.

The move didn’t do much. The Bruins continued to chase the game. They lost another D-zone wall battle, this time when Marchand and Matt Bartkowski fumbled an exchange. Backstrom pushed the puck up to Matt Niskanen. The defenseman’s one-timer tipped off the blade of Zach Trotman and past Rask at 7:06.

A two-goal lead was plenty for Holtby.

The Bruins settled down in the second period. They had their chances. Eriksson had a partial breakaway. After taking a good pass from Spooner, Smith had a good look from the left circle. Lucic pulled past the Capitals for a breakaway. Pastrnak deflected an Adam McQuaid shot. Holtby shrugged them all off, as he usually does against the Bruins.


“We had four golden opportunities in the second period,” Julien said. “When you don’t bury those chances, your chances become real slim.”

His team’s second-period sniffs convinced Julien to stick with his lines to start the third. His faith got him nowhere.

Several shifts later, Julien went back to his previous lines. It’s a good bet they’re the ones he’ll send out against Florida on Thursday. He has no other choice.

Wednesday went sideways for all parties. The players came up short. None of Julien’s moves produced results. The Bruins entered Wednesday with one mulligan in their final three games. They set it on fire.

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.