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What happened to Boston’s vaunted defense?

2013 NHL Stanley Cup Final - Game Four

BOSTON, MA - JUNE 19: Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins fails to save the game winning goal by Brent Seabrook #7 of the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime in Game Four of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on June 19, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

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BOSTON -- Coming into tonight’s Game 4, one of the biggest stories was Boston’s tight defense and stellar goaltending. Watching Chicago take them down 6-5 in overtime made for quite the turn of events.

So, what happened? As you might expect, mistakes played a big role.

“We just made it too tough on ourselves,” goaltender Tuukka Rask said. “They got a lot of shots through and a lot of second opportunities. You allow six goals as a goalie you can’t be satisfied with the fact it wasn’t our best defensive effort.”

Did Chicago do anything new and different aside from putting Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane together? Rask didn’t think so.

“They just got shots through. I didn’t make saves or we didn’t block shots and they got those rebounds. It makes a difference.”

Captain Zdeno Chara kept his assessment brief.

“I thought they did a better job than we did [of crashing the net],” he said. “Net-front presence was something I thought we could do better. We didn’t manage the puck as well as we could’ve.”

Chara finished the night a minus-3 and was on the ice for five goals against.

Fellow B’s defenseman Johnny Boychuk says the team’s task heading into Game 5 and for the remainder series is simple.

“We have to clean up our own end and not make turnovers and play our own kind of game,” he said.

Is there anything positive to take from a frustrating loss like this?

“We did battle back and it was a two-goal deficit and we found a way to come back. We probably shouldn’t have been in that position anyways.”

Coach Claude Julien wasn’t going to evaluate his team publicly, but looking ahead he knows his team can improve.

“I think we can be a lot better,” he said. “We have an opportunity to be better next game.

“Hopefully, if anything, that makes us even hungrier for the next game.”