As told to Jess Isner

Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid is keeping a diary for BostonBruins.com during the team’s 11-day road trip through Western Canada and the Midwest. In this edition, he discusses Boston’s tough loss to Vancouver on Friday night and some of his plans for the off-day in Calgary.

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Last night’s game against Vancouver obviously wasn’t the start to the road trip that we were looking for. We went down early in the first period, 2-0, so it was a tough start to the game, and ultimately, we lost 5-2. At a couple of points, we were able to battle back and get ourselves close, but we fell behind again, and it was a tough game for us. It’s something that I’m sure a lot of guys are still thinking about today, even with the change of scenery — we’re in Calgary now — and the day off from hockey.

Last night wasn’t the way you would want things to go if you could draw it up, but a tough start is one of those things that you just have to put behind you. You have to be able to keep playing and push back and get yourself back in the game. We came out slow in the first period last night and we were able to start playing a little bit better in that period. One of the most important things to remember when you’re out there on the ice is that regardless of what happened on the previous shift, you have to go out there for each new shift with a fresh mindset. That’s what we tried to do last night, and that’s what we have to keep doing as we push forward.

There are always improvements to make, whether you’re winning or losing, and we know the importance of this road trip as a whole. I’m sure we’ll go over some things from the last game and try to get better and get ready for Calgary on Monday night.

In the meantime, today is a day off for us, with our next game a couple of days away and a practice scheduled for tomorrow. We flew out of Vancouver last night and arrived very early this morning in Calgary. As you can imagine, most of us took advantage of the opportunity to sleep in a little bit longer than we normally would.

To be honest, I don’t have a lot on the agenda for today. When you do get a day off, especially on the road, you try to use it as an opportunity to get refreshed and just kind of relax. I’ll probably try to get out of the hotel and go for a walk, and just hang out a little bit. Some guys might catch a movie, or go to the mall, or just kind of break away from the regular routine. I’m sure a lot of guys are taking time to get in touch with their families back home, too. Later on tonight, I know there will be a big group of us going out to dinner together.

When we get together tonight, we’ll all be trying to move on from the results of last night’s game, but given the way the game went, I’m sure we’ll be talking about it. You try and find a balance of being able to talk about other things, too, but you’re always going to go back to hockey. It’s our common ground. With the tough loss last night, I’m sure guys will be talking about it and sharing thoughts and trying to figure out what we need to do, here.

This season hasn’t been easy. I think there have probably been a lot more ups and downs this year than there have been in the past, but the biggest thing for all of us to remember is that when we’re playing our game and we’re playing it well, we’ve been getting the results that we want. We saw that in January. On the flip side of that, we’ve also seen that when we don’t play our game, we obviously don’t get the results we want. We’re still trying to find that consistency, and we’re still trying to find a way to bring what we need to bring on a more consistent basis without all of these ups and downs.

I know guys are probably using today to try their best to kind of clear their heads as much as possible, but at the same time, we’ll all be excited to get back to practice tomorrow and try to right the ship.