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.

Is this what the Bruins faithful have waited 19 years for? How could the team come out so flat and uninspiring? How could they treat this game with no importance? How could coach Claude Julien not have them prepared to be forceful and determined to play playoff hockey?

[pullquote author=””]Everything the Bruins did right in their previous series against the Philadelphia Flyers, they did wrong on Saturday.[/pullquote]

With the eight day layoff, what did the Bruins do to repair a broken power play? Absolutely nothing, it seems. It was as dreadful as it has been all postseason. The B’s were 0-for-4 in the game while on the power play, bringing their postseason performance to a dreadful 2-for-41. That’s a success rate of 4.9 percent on the man-advantage, good for the third worse power play in the playoffs… in the last 25 years. Ouch.

The lone bright spot for the Bruins was rookie Tyler Seguin, who scored his first NHL playoff goal and assisted on one other score. Seguin had a total of 11 shifts and finished the game with an even plus-minus. Should he play more? I happen to think it wouldn’t hurt.

What has Michael Ryder done since Game 4 of the Canadiens series? The fourth line, which is supposed to be your energy line, really didn’t bring anything to the game. The coach continued to roll out four lines as he is wont to do and his in-game adjustments, or lack thereof, remained his modus operandi.

Faceoffs were another major factor in the loss. The Bruins lost 41 faceoffs and won only 26 — that shows how much Boston really misses their best player and faceoff center, Patrice Bergeron.

Bergeron practiced with the team on Monday, but did not address the media. Many speculate that he will be in the lineup Tuesday night for Game Two, though Julien maintains that no decision has been made.

Julien says the team can be better. They had better be in Game 2. Should they fall into another 0-2 hole against a better, quality opponent in Tampa Bay, they may not be able to stage a comeback.

The Bruins have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, so now is not the time to overreact. But if they plan on making an appearance in the Stanley Cup, the Bruins need to take Julien’s words to heart: They really “need to be better.”