The Bruins couldn’t connect on passes, struggled to connect during the first half of the game and once again found themselves in the penalty box too often – all issues that have dogged Jim Montgomery’s team since a win at Colorado.

The passing of the Bruins was once again a major problem, with too many people ending up on teammates’ skates or worse, on Stars’ sticks.

The slow skate to the box also continued (Boston was whistled for five minors) and the penalty kill, so reliable the past two seasons, produced three goals.

Montgomery said the current lack of confidence at the club is “quite significant,” but there is a more pressing problem.

“Our attitude needs to move in a better, healthier direction, like trying to control what you can control, which is trying to excel in your role,” the coach said. “Our attitude is not focused on the moment, but on results. And if you are results-oriented, you tend to take too many penalties because you get frustrated easily and often turn the puck over because you don’t want to work for the offense. You want results immediately. And that attitude of not being willing to work for what we want to achieve and achieve our team play is causing some problems at the moment.”

Ironically, the Bruins opened the scoring during a four-on-four in the first period by taking advantage of some sloppy Stars play.

As defender Matt Dumba attempted a pass behind the net, Matt Poitras intercepted it. The Bruins forward curled around the net and saw an unmarked David Pastrnak steam through the slot. Poitras fed him and Pastrnak fired past Casey DeSmith for a 1-0 lead.

Matt Duchene equalized when he blew past a sliding Cole Koepke, who had recorded a block, and lofted it over Jeremy Swayman’s shoulder to make it 1-1 after one.

The Stars (6-2-0) defeated the Bruins with three straight power-play goals to start the second. It started right away when Hampus Lindholm tripped on the opening face-off, allowing Roope Hintz to run straight in despite a Pastrnak hook. Swayman made the save, but the Stars took action just 20 seconds into the power play, with Jason Robertson pulling in a closing feed from Jamie Benn.

Parker Wotherspoon (interference) was wide of the box and the Stars took advantage again, with an unmarked Logan Stankoven sliding one past Swayman (27 saves).

Pastrnak took his second penalty of the period, this time for tripping Dumba in attack.

During the TV timeout before the penalty kick started, Montgomery called the entire team to the bench and brought out the white board. It wasn’t a chewing session, but rather a teaching lesson.

“I didn’t think we were physical enough,” the coach said. “I just said, ‘Let’s take this penalty off,’ and I wanted to start skating and hitting, so I simplified everything a little bit so that we would go north and so that we would be more physical. We have become a bit more physical.”

Still, the message didn’t get through right away, as old friend Tyler Seguin zipped one over Swayman’s shoulder for the third power-play strike to push the Dallas lead to 4-1.

“We have to stop taking penalties, and that includes myself,” said Charlie McAvoy. “I didn’t get one tonight, but sometimes it’s bad luck with stick violations, but usually you can always bring it back to effort. So yes, we are way overtaxing our penalty killings, and we have great penalty killing. We have a great penalty killing coach (in Joe Sacco) and right now we’re not doing the job for Sway. So we have to stay off the beaten path, and when we do, we have to kill it.

The Bruins cut the deficit to 4-2 when Justin Brazeau connected for his first of the season on a nice feed from Trent Frederic on the power play.

Trailing by a pair entering the third, the Bruins (3-4-1) showed signs of a spark and took the offense to the Stars, who were content to dump and chase to protect their cushion.

Despite the slip, McAvoy said there is no doom and gloom in the locker room.

“I think right now we’re going through these first 10 games and we’re trying to figure out how to do our best, and yes, we don’t like these results,” the defender said. “We recognize it’s different than what we’ve had in the past when we came out running and gunning, but I think we’re doing OK. We’re not panicking here, but we know we have to play better and we’re still trying to find ways.”

Jim McBride can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @globejimmcbride.