It symbolized the need for a commitment to a full 60-minute effort each and every night, a concept stressed throughout Claude Julien's tenure behind the Boston bench.
In the last couple weeks, the Bruins haven't had to worry much about playing the full 60. Their slow starts in the opening 10 minutes have often left the final 50 meaning little. That was particularly true Tuesday night in Tampa.
The Lightning struck on their first shot just 1:56 in, then again 30 seconds later. Another goal came at 4:31 to drive Marty Turco from his first start in goal with the Bruins and it was 4-0 by the end of the opening period. The Bruins never recovered, falling 6-1 to drop their third straight game for the first time since October.
"We fall behind, and all of the sudden when you fall behind you get frustrated and you stray away from the game plan and then things just get worse," Julien said. "We tried to right the ship after the second period and start doing things right so we could at least make ourselves a better team moving forward. But again, those goals are discouraging. It just sucks the wind out of your team right now. We've got to find a way to prevent those."
The Bruins have repeatedly fallen behind early in recent games. In their last six games, they've given up the first goal each time. They have not led after one period in any of those games and been outscored 13-3 in the opening period in that span. They've fallen behind 2-0 or worse in the opening 10 minutes of four of those games, and in the last two games alone they've trailed by a combined 7-0 after the first period.
Julien has been able to settle his team or wake them up with timeouts in some of those games, but that trick can be effective only so often, and teams can't expect to regularly dig out of such early holes.
"It seems we either need to get kind of mad when they do score a goal or when they do score a few and we take time out and then we start playing our way," Bruins captain Zdeno Chara said. "We've got to play right away like we can without getting scored on or taking timeouts."
The first period has been Boston's worst all season. They've outscored opponents just 62-60 in the opening frame, compared to their dominance in the third, when they hold an 88-53 edge. But being able to finish strong means little if the early deficit is that insurmountable.
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