Jim Montgomery blasts the Bruins for their persistently subpar work, saying, “It’s not acceptable.”

Boston — Not only were the Boston Bruins awful on Saturday. It’s that there may be a pattern emerging.

Their second terrible performance in the previous three games came in a 3-0 loss against the Washington Capitals. They coasted through a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.

It’s unacceptable, according to coach Jim Montgomery. Furthermore, we won’t accept that. We’re going to evolve. perhaps circumstances will shift.

Coaches can put up with subpar performance. Against the Flames and the Capitals, there was a lot of that.

But they can’t put up with shoddy work. Too often, the Bruins demonstrated that they were unable to execute at a professional level, whether it was by losing races, being cautious while approaching hazardous ice, or leaving a battle to avoid being physically penalized.

Montgomery remarked, “I want to break your leg to get the puck if there is one between me and you.” And after the last three games, we don’t currently have that. That’s the crux of the matter. That isn’t appropriate. We simply weren’t good.

During a five-minute power play in the second period, T.J. Oshie put the Capitals a 1-0 lead. There had been a spearing major on Max Pacioretty for Matt Grzelcyk.

Dylan Strome scored during a two-on-one rush in the third. With an empty-net goal, Alex Ovechkin scored his 834th goal of his career.

The Bruins were 0-for-4 on the power play. Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie and Jesper Boqvist, three of their four centers, combined for zero shots. David Pastrnak steered more pucks wide of the net or into shot-blockers (six) than he put on net (three). Washington’s in-your-face man-on-man coverage denied the Bruins from generating anything resembling offensive pressure.

“We have a standard here,” Coyle said. “We weren’t even close to meeting it tonight.”

The home crowd at TD Garden let their heroes know they did not like what they saw.

“I love our fans. That’s what I think,” Montgomery said when asked how he felt to hear booing. “They’re hockey knowledgable. They’re not wrong.”

Montgomery dipped into the coaching bag of tricks. During the first intermission, he reminded his players of their flatline game against the Flames. He asked them what they were going to do to make sure they didn’t lay another egg.

One intermission later, with no results to speak of, Montgomery let Brad Marchand address his teammates. That didn’t work either.

During play, Montgomery moved around his players. Danton Heinen went up to the No. 1 line with Marchand and Charlie Coyle. Jake DeBrusk skated shifts with Zacha and Pastrnak.