Morgan Geekie put himself in the middle of Boston's strangest moment Sunday, and Marco Sturm got no relief in another tight Bruins loss.

The Bruins fell 2-1 in overtime to the Philadelphia Flyers, but the score wasn't the part that stuck.

Geekie's accidental equipment penalty turned into the sequence everyone was still talking about after the final horn.

That says plenty about where Boston is right now.

When a one-goal road loss gets overshadowed by a bench mistake, the pressure inside the room is already high.

Geekie didn't duck it.

He admitted he was trying to get a stick to Charlie McAvoy after McAvoy's stick snapped at the blue line, then lost control of it and sent it onto the ice instead.

The result was a minor for throwing equipment, and it landed at the worst time.

Boston was already trying to survive a game with little offensive push, and that play added more noise to a group that has had too much of it.

"I meant ot just pass it to (McAvoy),'' said Geekie. "I kind of fumbled it and just accidentally threw it. I mean, it was completely my fault, but I didn't mean to throw it. I just tried to reach over and hand it, and I just lost the handle on it.''

"I might be my second,'' Geekie added. "I had one in Carolina, I think. (I) picked a guy's stick up off the ground and threw it at him. So no, my second one. This one I didn't mean to. Last time, I didn't know the rules, so you'd think I would've learned my lesson.'

What made it hit harder was Geekie's own reaction. He called it his fault and didn't try to soften it, which probably tells you how frustrated he is with his game right now.

He's been held scoreless for 17 straight games after opening his first 61 games with 34 goals. That kind of drop changes the feel of every shift for a top-six forward.

Boston needs more than honesty from Geekie

Accountability matters, especially when a player is slumping. But the Bruins need more than a clean quote from Geekie. They need his finish back around the crease and on the power play.

That's the real issue here. The stick incident was bizarre, no doubt, but Boston can live through one strange penalty. It's much harder to live through a scorer going cold for this long.

Geekie's comments also revealed something else: this wasn't even the first time he had taken that kind of penalty. He referenced a similar play from his Carolina days, which only made the postgame moment more memorable.

For Sturm, this becomes a bench-management problem as much as a scoring problem. When a player is squeezing the stick, every mistake gets louder, and every empty shift feels longer.

The Bruins still got this game to overtime, which shows they were close. But close doesn't mean much when one of your best finishers is stuck and the margin stays razor-thin.

Geekie was honest. Now Boston need the next part from him fast: goals, cleaner decisions, and a lot less chaos around the bench.