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Yesterday, in a disappointed Boston Bruins locker room following the Black & Gold’s 5-2 setback to the San Jose Sharks, Tim Thomas – a locker room philosopher if ever there was one – said it best:

“We learn something every game, the whole year. I think, overall, we’ve done very well, so there’s a lot of positive things, but obviously we can play better …[and] there’s room for improvement.”

The clear sentiment around the room was something along those lines and defenseman Aaron Ward, who has been a part of three Stanley Cup championship teams, spoke to the night as a teaching experience.

“Yeah, we can reflect as a group and understand that at this point, it’s simple,” he said. “If we have to prove things to ourselves based on experience, there it is.

“Replay that third period on video and we can see that we’re pretty ineffective when we sit around and watch other teams play.”

Forward Marc Savard wore his disappointment like a necklace of bricks.

“I mean, we played two periods of it,” said Savard.  “We had the lead, we outplayed them most of those two periods and we go out in the third and have a bad period.

“We know we can play with them. We know that now and obviously we just have to know we need sixty minutes against these [elite] teams."

The 60-minute effort seems to be the last piece of the Bruins puzzle.

“Seems like in the last while, that’s been our Achilles Heel right now, we go out and play two good periods -- whether it’s the first and the third, second [and] third, it’s just a mix-up right now – and we’re not sure what period we’re in," said Savard. "We have to play sixty strong minutes or this is going to continue to happen."

Informed of his players’ reaction, Bruins head coach Claude Julien looked pleased.

“That’s the way our players react,” said Julien. “They look at it as lesson learned, and I think they were disappointed because...we went into the third period with a lead and thought we could continue to compete.

“But it took a few mistakes and, again, just not having enough…energy to push back.

“And unfortunately against a team like that it’s already pretty hard to play against them with a full lineup and when you have to shorten your bench because of injuries, [that] certainly doesn’t help matters,” said the coach.

Julien added the following coda.

“Give them credit, guys, they played a real good game. They played a patient game,” said Julien of the Sharks. “We had a good first period, but as the game went on they started picking up their game and we had our hands full.”

Forward Milan Lucic, who seemed to have tired of all the talk about the Sharks prior to the game, and who, with his two goals, carried the Bruins for much of the game against San Jose summarized the night.

“It’s a tough one because it’s a big game,” he said.  “You put a lot of energy…into the game.

“I think, obviously, you have to be disappointed about it right now.

“But, you just have to turn the page and learn from your mistakes and try to get better tomorrow,” he said.

“Tomorrow” starts this morning at Wilmington’s  Ristuccia Memorial Arena at 11:30 a.m.