BOSTON – The Bruins fell behind early and were eliminated at home by a bad team.

The Blue Jackets arrived in last place in the Metropolitan Division at TD Garden, earning the second pair of points in the NHL after going 1-6-1 in their previous eight games. But Columbus scored the first three goals of the game to earn an easy 5-1 victory over the Bruins, who were booed as they left the ice Monday.

Boston faces Utah on Thursday at TD Garden.

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Dmitri Voronkov was credited with the first Blue Jackets goal. He got behind the Bruins defense and got a relatively soft backhander to Jeremy Swayman, who made an easy save. But Brandon Carlo, trying to get back, tried to dive in hopes of thwarting Voronkov’s shot attempt.

Instead, he bumped into Swayman and dislodged the puck, which trickled into the net to give Columbus a 1-0 lead.

The Bruins’ struggling power play had a chance to tie the game, but instead the hole was dug deeper. Mathieu Olivier, who previously battled Jeffrey Viel, got his second leg of the Gordie Howe hat trick with a short-handed goal, making it 2-0 with 9:21 to go.

Former Bruin James van Riemsdyk piled on a third goal in the final minute of the frame to make it 3-0. It was his 19th career goal against Boston.

The crowd cheered the Bruins as they left the ice.

Elvis Merzlikins was excellent in thwarting some good early chances before Charlie Coyle put Boston on the board with a power play goal in the second period to make it 3-1 with 5:30 to go.

But Justin Danforth extinguished all hope with the Jackets’ second shorthanded goal early in the third.

Takeaways

Swayman struggles again — During practice on Sunday, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery did not rule out giving Joonas Korpisalo a second straight start. The Boston backup has played well and an extra day off could have benefited struggling starter Jeremy Swayman. But it went back to Swayman, who gave up three goals in the first period and two in the third.

The first one clearly wasn’t his fault, but after allowing seven in his last start against Dallas, they all feel like dents in his armor. He finished with 24 saves.

Bruins power play scores a goal, but allows two shorthanded goals – The Bruins scored their first power-play goal in seven games in the second period. They had conceded 16 extra-man chances in the past six games and entered Monday with an 11.3% success rate that was the worst in the league.

But the unit was a net negative, allowing two shorthanded goals in the match. They’ve given up four on a man advantage, the worst in the NHL.

Jeffrey Viel makes a noticeable debut — While many players have come from Providence and had limited impact, Viel immediately received some attention. He got into a fight during his first shift on the ice, was assessed a boarding penalty later in the first period and was assessed a high stick penalty that put the Bruins on the power play. In total, he played 15 shifts in a span of 8:29 hours.