Boston Bruins vs Tampa Bay Lightning: Bruins Look for First Win in ECF Rematch

The Boston Bruins raised their sixth Stanley Cup banner to the rafters of the TD Garden Thursday night, but after an energetic start to their season opener, the Bruins were outplayed and outworked by the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Bruins started the NHL season with great intensity, and their much-maligned power play scored the first goal of the season. Brad Marchand took a great pass from Tyler Seguin and slid it past Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov for the opening score.

After that, the Bruins lacked energy, and as a team looked very sloppy. It’s unfair to expect the Bruins to be in midseason form on opening night, but the good play they displayed for much of the preseason just wasn’t there.

It’s hard to separate the emotions of the pregame ceremony from the task at hand, and Thursday night the goal was winning two points from a very good Flyers team.

Was the Bruins’ poor performance on opening night part of a Stanley Cup hangover? It might have been.

“It shows itself in some shape or form,” said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli.  “It’s unavoidable is what I’m told.”

Whether the Bruins were affected by the so-called Cup hangover or not against the Flyers, it was apparent they weren’t in sync with each other.

Players were out of position, passes were sent to teammates skates instead of the blade of their stick, and overall the team looked lost for stretches. The pressure of winning in front of your hometown fans on such a historic night can be a daunting task, but the Bruins cannot be playing like this early in the season.

Out of the 10 games Boston plays in October, seven of them are against playoff teams from last season.

Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning is a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. Later in the month, the Bruins play two top Western Conference teams in the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks, and play their arch rival the Montreal Canadiens twice.

The Bruins are playing important and difficult games in the very early stages of the 2011-12 season, and cannot afford to think too much about last season.

The team needs that same hunger, and with a lot of young players on the team still trying to establish themselves in the NHL, finding motivation to win again shouldn’t be hard.

“A lot of guys are still very hungry and establishing themselves in this league, and making a name for themselves, and everyone definitely seems hungry, and wants to do it again,” said Bruins forward Tyler Seguin, who at age 19 is the youngest player on the roster.

Leading up to the season opener many Bruins players agreed that the team is still hungry, and that there are many guys on this team with a lot still to prove about how good they can be.

The positive thing for the Bruins is they are in the right frame of mind, which is the most important thing. Their play on the ice will get better, no team plays great right out of the gate.

 “You get a state of winning it’s a pretty good taste,” Bruins president Cam Neely said. “We got a good group of guys, great character, still fairly young team for the most part that I think aren’t tired of winning yet”

All quotes obtained first hand.

For updates on all Bruins news throughout the season, follow Nick Goss on Twitter. Follow @NicholasGoss35

Nicholas Goss is a Boston Bruins featured columnist for Bleacher Report and was the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Boston.