Power Outage

After an eight day layoff, the Bruins returned to the ice Saturday night and played one of their worst games of the postseason, falling to the Lightning 5-2 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. 

It wasn't quite as literal as the lights going out during both the 1988 and 1990 Cup Finals against the mighty Edmonton Oilers, but a power outage of a different variety plagued the Bruins Saturday night nonetheless.

Hosting their first Eastern Conference Finals game since 1992, the Black and Gold stumbled in Game 1 against the streaking Tampa Bay Lightning, surrendering three quick goals in a span of just 85-seconds during the first period before eventually absorbing a painful 5-2 loss. And, while much of the blame could be placed directly on the shoulders of goaltender Tim Thomas, who allowed a fair share of soft goals, it was the Bruins skaters in front of him that hung Thomas out to dry.

Much like the first round bout against Montreal, the Bruins now find themselves trailing the Lightning 1-0 in the series.

"It's tough, we pretty much gave them every single one of them," said defenseman Tomas Kaberle. "And we never gave up after. We know we are better in here we have to show it in the second game. We know it is not going to be an easy series. And we have to put it behind us right now and think about what is going to happen on Tuesday."

The first defensive miscue came when the usually reliable Dennis Seidenberg made a poor decision to reverse the puck and then coughed it up directly to Lightning forward Dominic Moore. Almost on cue, Moore found Victor Hedman at the point, who blasted the shot on goal. Although Thomas made the initial save, the rebound squirted off Seidenberg's skate directly to Sean Bergenheim who buried his league-leading 8th playoff goal, giving Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead midway through the opening period.

Just 19 seconds later, the Lightning expanded the lead to 2-0 on a great individual effort from Brett Clark. Skating with the puck out of his defensive zone, Clark rushed all the way up ice, eluded four different Bruins and then backhanded the puck between the pads of Thomas.

Teddy Purcell extended the lead to 3-0 just over a minute later when he took advantage of a horrific Tomas Kaberle giveaway in his own zone.

Overall, all three goals were a result of the Bruins shooting themselves in the foot, or skate, to be more accurate.

"Those mistakes were mistakes that you can correct easily," admitted Bruins head coach Claude Julien. "Those things were uncharacteristic of our hockey club. Of the first three goals, I don't feel there was a good goal out of all of those things. A blind backhand from a touch angle. We lose a puck beside our net. Is it really something that they did so well that created that? No. I think it's more about us."

However, despite the Bruins defensive deficiencies, credit must be given to the opportunistic Lightning for making Boston's mistakes hurt.

"Give them credit for pouncing of those opportunities and capitalizing on them," explained Julien. "That's part of the game. But you've got to look at your team and say, 'What can you do better?' We have to make sure we're a little better with our puck management. That wasn't there tonight."

The lone bright spot for the Bruins came with just over four minutes remaining in the first period. Playing in his first career playoff game, newly inserted winger and 18-year-old rookie Tyler Seguin made a beautiful move in close before burying a wrister past Lightning goaltender Dwayne Roloson for his first career playoff goal.

"He had a good game," Julien said of Seguin. "I thought when he had his chance, he took advantage of it and scored and obviously he had a lot of energy tonight and excitement in his game, so he was a good player for us."

However, from there on out, Seguin's goal would be all the Bruins offense could muster. Sure, they added a second tally late in the third period, but with the score already out of hand at 5-1, the goal made little difference in the grand scheme of things.

"I think we could have had a better effort," concluded Julien. "I think overall as a team, we're definitely going to need to be better and get a better effort there."

"We gave them that 3-0 lead. It was certainly a little bit like in that Montreal series. I thought we gave them some easy goals. That was more of our doing that it was theirs. Until that point, I thought we had started the game really well and had good momentum. But those three goals certainly set us back."

Bruins fans can't help but think that if Boston's best two-way player and leading postseason scorer, Patrice Bergeron, was on the ice, Saturday's result would have been far different.

Get well, Patrice.

The Bruins need you.