B’s face tough week to snap skid

For the first time in a month, the Bruins are riding a losing streak.

Granted it’s only two games, and the second loss — in overtime Saturday to the Rangers — earned them a point in the standings and possessed enough good things to be considered a glass-half-full defeat.

But the Bruins are facing the kind of week in which things could snowball on the them quickly. They have four games in six days leading into the Christmas break, and it won’t be easy. They face another tough Metropolitan Division team in Columbus tonight at home, then travel to Buffalo tomorrow night to face the lastplaced Sabres — who have been playing much better lately (two wins, three OT losses in last six) and always seem to get up for the B’s.

After a day off, the Bruins face a good Winnipeg team on Thursday at the Garden, then finish up with a matinee against the Red Wings on Saturday. If the competition doesn’t sink them, the schedule could.

One problem is allow- ing the first goal. Though that wasn’t indicative of their play on Saturday — the Rangers scored first on a fluke — it has been three straight games of giving up the first goal. They’re not playing poorly defensively, but they need to bury the kind of chances that they’ve had.

“It’s not what we want,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We want to have the lead, especially in our building. We’ve got to find a way to finish better, to be honest with you. I thought we defended well, even in Detroit. It was kind of a vanilla game for long stretches but we did enough to win (in overtime).

“But we’d like to get back to where teams are on their heels in this building, and quite frankly on the road — but specifically in our building.”

Cassidy is trying to figure out who should play with David Krejci. He went a few games using the veteran centerman with two rookies, Anders Bjork and Jake DeBrusk, but that’s hit a snag of late. Bjork struggled badly enough in Thursday’s loss to Washington to be scratched on Saturday in favor of the returning Ryan Spooner at right wing, while DeBrusk found himself playing less than eight minutes on Saturday.

There has been an internal discussion of bumping up Danton Heinen to play with Krejci, said Cassidy, but the staff also want to create some continuity for the veteran center.

“It’s not ideal for David,” Cassidy said. “We’ve decided to leave (David Pastrnak) up (with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand), so he’s getting some kids. He’s getting Ryan Spooner, who’s a centerman but probably thinks the game a lot like David, so I think they could complement each other.

“I just think they need a heavier presence on the line. What I mean by heavy is more of a net presence, net drive. It doesn’t have to be a 230-pounder, but a guy that will get to the net for them. That could be Jake or Anders. It’s what we’d like to see more out of them on a consistent basis.”

Cassidy wasn’t making any lineup announcements yesterday, but he sounded inclined to put Bjork back in the mix. Whether that adversely affects DeBrusk remains to be seen, but Cassidy wants to see more out of the left winger than he saw Saturday.

“I didn’t think he was hard enough on the puck,” Cassidy said. “He lost some battles along the wall and through the middle of the ice. By my count, he probably had two backhand turnovers and those are the tough ones. We try to emphasize with the young guys, play on your forehand if you’re not sure because you’re always stronger. Those backhand plays in the middle of the ice . . . every game is close and you just have to manage the puck better in those situations.

“You’ve go to get those (bad plays) out of your game. Live to fight another day, manage the puck, eat the puck and put it to a safe area. You can’t make a play every time. Teams are too good.”

• • • Adam McQuaid is getting very close to a return. And though it didn’t sound like tonight’s game was likely, the defenseman could see action this week.

While Cassidy doesn’t appear to want to go back to the four righties-two lefties combination he started the season with, he opened the door to possibly going with seven defensemen some nights.

“It’ll create good competition,” Cassidy said.