Five games in nine days on the road is never easy for any team. To do it the two weeks before Christmas makes it harder. Let’s not forget that the five games were spread out over the Northwest and Western Canada.

Three time zones, and five games against teams battling for a Western Conference playoff berth was not going to be easy.

The trip started as bad as it could for the Boston Bruins who were outscored, 13-2, in their first two games, losses to the Winnipeg Jets and Seattle Kraken.

To their credit, instead of having the trip unravel quickly, they turned it around winning two of the final three games against the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames before losing in overtime to the Edmonton Oilers.

A 2-2-1 trip this time of the year isn’t bad, but captain Brad Marchand thought it could have been better and he’s not wrong.

Bruins captain Brad Marchand gives blunt but honest assessment

After the Bruins’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Oilers Thursday night, Marchand spoke about the five-game trip.

Leading 2-1 entering the third period, a Connor McDavid goal forced overtime before the defending Western Conference champs won it.

“We finished better than we started, for sure,’’ Marchand said.

“But we can’t afford to be giving away points like that right now. We needed to be more prepared to start the road trip than we were. It should have been better than it was.

But at the end of the day, it’s good to get five (points). Coming away with five, it could have been a lot worse, but it should have been better.’’

Marchand isn’t wrong, it feels like at least one point was left on the table Thursday night in Edmonton. Boston needed to close out that game in regulation.

Too many self-inflected mistakes cost them. Losing points in that manner will add up and it certainly feels like they are going to be in a dogfight for a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and all points are big. Going 2-2-1 is good, but yes, it could have been better.