Tuukka Rask tossed a broken skate blade up the ice in frustration DeSean Jackson Jersey , but hardly lost his cool.

”I didn’t throw it at anybody,” the Boston goaltender said Saturday. ”If I threw it at somebody, I’d like to apologize, but I didn’t. I just wanted to make sure that everybody saw that my blade was off.”

Rask settled after allowing a second-period goal while trying to let officials know he had a problem with his left skate, finishing with 34 saves in the Bruins‘ 6-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Rick Nash had two goals and the Bruins’ high-scoring line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand combined for 11 points, however Rask’s ability to retain his composure after Mikhail Sergachev’s goal trimmed Boston’s lead to 3-2 was every bit as important.

”He was really good,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said. ”He gave us more than a chance to win early on when we were still trying to find our legs. We weren’t executing very well. They were better than us, and then our top guys started finishing their chances.”

Bergeron also scored twice and had an assist on one of Nash’s goals for the Bruins, who finished one point behind Tampa Bay for the Atlantic Division title, as well as the No. 1 seed in the East.

Marchand had a goal and three assists, while Pastrnak finished with four assists in a dominating performance.

A second goal by Marchand was waved off because of a cross-checking penalty on Pastrnak.

”You need your best players to be your best players, and clearly that happened tonight for us,’ Cassidy said.

Dan Girardi also scored for the Lightning, who trailed by one goal entering the third period.

Marchand and Bergeron hiked Boston’s advantage to 5-2 before Jake DeBrusk added an empty-netter with 6:19 remaining.

The Bruins had just 10 shots against Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy over the last two periods Cameron Jordan Jersey , but made the most of the limited opportunities.

Game 2 is Monday night at Amalie Arena.

The Lightning, in the conference semifinals for the third time in four years, remain confident.

”We have a lot of experience. Guys have been in this position before,” center Tyler Johnson said. ”It’s one game. It doesn’t matter if you lose a game 3-2 or 12-2. It’s the same thing.”

Rask won three of four starts against the Lightning during the regular season, with Tampa Bay’s lone victory coming in the final meeting.

Pastrnak assisted on each of Boston’s first three goals and added another on Bergeron’s third-period goal, giving him 12 helpers in eight playoff games.

”They’re good. … They’ve played together for a while and they know where to find each other,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Boston’s top line.

”They play both ends of the rink. They’ve played on Olympic teams, World Cup teams, and every time you look up and Canada is winning, usually Marchand or Bergeron had something to do with it,” Cooper added. ”They’ve done it for a long time.”

Nash, meanwhile, got his second and third goals of the postseason, scoring on the power play at 17:11 of the opening period and 12:33 of the second to put the Bruins up 3-1. Sergachev countered on the power play, trimming Tampa Bay’s deficit to 3-2.

”We lost 6-2 Adrian Peterson Jersey , so it doesn’t matter how we feel about how we played,” Cooper said. ”We’re going to wake up in the morning, somebody is going to look at the score and say Tampa is down 1-0. Is there stuff we can build off this game? No question. But they got six, and in the end we have to raise the level of our game to get back in this series.”

NOTES: Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots. … When Rask lost the blade on his skate, play was allowed to continue because losing a blade is not considered a safety issue. … The Bruins and Lightning are meeting in the playoffs for only the second time. The teams also met in the 2011 Eastern Conference Final, won by Boston in seven games. Six current Bruins – Bergeron, Marchand, Rask, Zdeno Chara, David Krejci and Adam McQuaid were part of that team, which went on win the Stanley Cup.

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Bob Sutton was asked this week to discuss what he liked and didn't like about the way the Kansas City Chiefs played against the Chicago Bears last week.

Their defensive coordinator didn't come up with a whole lot of positives.

The Chiefs gave up gobs of yards against the Bears' backup offense, watching their own ex-backup quarterback, Chase Daniel, move the ball at will. Their cornerbacks struggled, their pass rush was largely ineffective and their young prospects did little to instill confidence.

"Obviously Kelvin Benjamin Jersey ," Sutton said, "we didn't play as well as we wanted to."

That alone is a fairly big indictment of the defense, considering Sutton has a habit of defending his players to the max. He's made from the same mold as Chiefs coach Andy Reid in that he'd rather take the blame for his team's poor performance than single out any individual.

Yet there reaches a point where the players on the field simply aren't getting it done.

"We didn't convert on third down, which was big in that game. We had some scrambles that got out that hurt us early in the game," Sutton said. "Like most touchdown drives or scoring drives, you find a big play or penalty in the drive. That played true up in Chicago for us. To eliminate those are big for us. I would say the other aspect, I don't think we tackled as well as we would have liked."

That pretty much runs the gamut of problems. And the reality is the Chiefs don't have a whole lot of time to make corrections. Their starters are unlikely to play much, if any, in their preseason finale against the Packers on Thursday night before turning their attention to their season opener.

By that point, the Chiefs could be trying to get some new guys up to speed.

They already signed cornerback Orlando Scandrick late in camp, and the compressed time frame that he had to get ready for the Bears was evident in his performance. But given the way their defense has performed so far, they could be scouring the waiver wire after roster cut-downs this weekend.

"The neat part about this game (Thursday) is everybody gets to get out there and play an extended time, and like we told them from Day 1, try to make the final evaluation as tough on (general manager) Brett Veach as you can," Reid said. "There's going to be some competition there."

If there's any reason for optimism the past couple of weeks Laken Tomlinson Jersey , though, it's this: The Chiefs have yet to have their full complement of starters on the field at any time during the preseason.

Inside linebackers Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Ragland finally got to play against Chicago, but the Chiefs were still missing cornerback Steven Nelson and safety Eric Berry from the secondary.

Nelson was just cleared to return to practice Monday after dealing with a concussion, and Reid has said he expects Berry to be ready for the season after dealing with a bothersome heel.

Throw in defensive end Allen Baily's knee injury, and the loss of Daniel Sorensen for the start of the season because of a broken leg, and that's a hefty dose of missing pieces.

"We have enough time to do what we need to do. You need to drill down," Sutton said. "There's a lot of things in there from a coaching perspective I don't think are too difficult."

Reid said Tuesday that everyone will dress for the preseason finale, though he doesn't expect many of the regulars to play. He did say some of the younger players, such as rookie defensive end Breeland Speaks, would likely get onto the field in some capacity.

"How much? I can't tell you that," Reid said. "Just have to play it by ear."

NOTES: TE Travis Kelce missed practice Tuesday for personal reasons. He's expected to be at the game Thursday night. ... Backup TE Demetrius Harris will play against the Packers, then begin his one-game suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. "He's practiced with that group all week and made sure he got some reps," Reid said. "He needs to get the work in before his break here."

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