The Bruins have won games in plenty of different ways this postseason. They’ve gone the 60-minute-effort route, and they’ve done it in overtime (in half of their wins, in fact). As was seen last round vs. the Flyers, they’ve won games in the first period (Game 3), won them in second (Game 1) and won them in the third (Game 4). They can win at any time, in any stretch of time. 

Saturday, they lost in a matter of 85 seconds.

The Bruins’ Game 1 loss to the Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals featured as ugly a 1:25 segment as a team could produce. From Dennis Seidenberg kicking a puck right onto the stick of Sean Bergenheim, to an otherwise sound Tim Thomas allowing a softie to Brett Clark, to an inexcusable Tomas Kaberle giveaway, it was a horrific stretch in the middle of the first period, and it was everything the team hadn’t been doing as they went two and a half weeks without losing. 

Though the score was far different, the way the B’s let giveaways sink them was glaringly similar to Game 1 of the conference semifinals vs. the Canadiens, a 2-0 shutout loss. Like Saturday, that contest featured some bad turnovers by the Bruins that led to goals for the opponent, including a first-period mishap by Kaberle. The Bruins weren't getting lit up by the Lightning (who are capable of doing so against pretty much any team), but they were giving them the opportunities to do so.

“When we gave them that 3-0 lead, it was certainly a little bit like in that Montreal series,” Claude Julien said after the game. “I thought we gave them some easy goals and that was more our doing than 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.”

Back in the Montreal series, it was a botched cycle by Kaberle that first got the Habs on the board. The B’s were already trailing by a pair when Kaberle’s latest mishap occurred, but it seemed the feeling for what looked like a suddenly deflated team was similar after Teddy Purcell reach behind the net and pickpocket him before jamming the puck past Tim Thomas.

“He didn’t take it from me, the puck slid on my blade and I tried to make a move,” Kaberle said after the game. “Those things you have to put behind you, [put] the past behind you. I felt good in the first period, I thought I had good legs. When you make a mistake, you have to put it behind you. That’s all you have to do. If you keep thinking about it, it’s not going to make you any better.” 

The good news? That as cliché as it is, and as close as it is to regurgitation of what the Bruins will tell you, the issues for the Bruins Saturday were uncharacteristic, and it’s all correctable. If Kaberle holds onto the puck, it’s a different game. If Seidenberg has his stick, that puck doesn’t go right to Bergenheim. On Clark’s goal, Thomas makes that save 99 times out of 100. 

“It was a lot of little breakdowns,” Seidenberg said after the game. “We kind of gave them those goals to score in the first period, and that’s not us and we all know that. And we just have to clean that up and we’ll be fine.”

It’s everything you’d expect them to tell you, but when they say after a loss like that they can be better, it is true.

The other good news? That the last time the Bruins came out and gave Game 1 away at home, they eventually corrected those mistakes. It took the B’s until Game 3 before they could actually pull a win out against the Habs, but the end result was the team narrowly advancing to the next round. 

Yet that’s where the bad news comes in. Tampa Bay has a far stronger team than Montreal, with much more offensive fire power. If the Bruins dig themselves the type of hole they did against the Canadiens, they might not be able to get out of it. The lessons have to be learned for the B’s, and the corrections have to be made. More importantly, it has to be reflected on the scoreboard. 

The first period can’t be an unassisted goal-fest for the opponent, and the B’s can’t put themselves in a situation in which they’re left hoping they can suddenly light up a very good goaltender. From the moment Purcell redeemed the coupon Kaberle handed him for one free goal, common sense suddenly said that even for a Bruins team that came back three times in one game this postseason, their chances were slim. Dwayne Roloson wasn’t going to allow for goals in the game. He hasn’t done it all postseason, and with a lead and his team ready to sit back and block some shots, the game was won for Tampa Bay in the first period. 

The Bruins need to stick to the old line of giving a 60-minute effort, and that includes the 1:25 in which they gave Game 1 away.