Published May 17, 2011
The Boston Bruins' Chris Kelly skates away as a Tampa Bay Lightning player celebrates a goal during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. (AP)
Tell me if you’ve seen this movie before.
On Saturday night, the Boston Bruins played a pivotal playoff game as if it was nothing more but a regular season matchup. They played without any of the intensity, emotion, or urgency that would lead you to believe that four wins would get them to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup semifinals at the TD Garden against the Tampa Bay Lightning was oh-so-reminiscent of the Bruins’ first game against the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round of this year’s playoffs. Despite the high stakes and electric atmosphere before the puck dropped, the team Bruins fans were excited to see seemed nonplussed.
Everything the Bruins did right in their previous series against the Philadelphia Flyers, they did wrong on Saturday. They seemed tentative and defensive and made mistake after mistake — perhaps none more glaring than Tomas Kaberle’s first period turnover that led to Teddy Purcell’s score, giving the Lightning a quick three goal lead.
Unfortunately, the poor play didn’t stop there. Goalie Tim Thomas had been on a hot streak, but seemed to take a step backward in Game 1. Tampa Bay’s first score, by Sean Bergenheim, followed multiple errors. Thomas thought he had the puck tied up under his glove, but it slipped out to his right. Dennis Seidenberg lost his stick on the play and kicked the puck right to Bergenheim, who put it in.
Not even 20 seconds later, Thomas allowed a soft goal on Brett Clark’s backhander from a bad angle — a puck he has to stop. At that point, it was basically lights out on the first game of the series.
