Making sense of an unhinged first period in Boston

Drew O’Connor, Lars Eller and Erik Karlsson celebrate a first-period goal Thursday night in Boston — Photo via GETTY

Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

The Penguins’ matchup with the Bruins at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday got off to a predictable start: A Bruins goal just 41 seconds in.

TD Garden has been a House of Horrors for the Penguins over the years. Brad Marchand’s opening tally initially suggested a long night was ahead:

Sidney Crosby’s line actually seemed to have a bit of juice in the offensive zone on that shift, but you can expect the puck to end up in the back of your net at a high frequency when both of your defensemen let their checks get inside positioning on them at the net-front:

That’s now two games in a row that the Penguins have allowed a goal in the opening minute of the first period … not that it ultimately mattered in this one.

A little over four minutes of action passed before this game went off the rails in the best way. Drew O’Connor’s fifth goal of the season sparked a run of unmitigated chaos:

Really encouraging stuff from O’Connor moments before banging home the loose change. Something he struggles with at times is cleanly receiving pucks that have been rimmed along the wall and then making a play quickly.

Here, however, he did an outstanding job of corralling the puck on his backhand and spinning away from Charlie McAvoy to advance the puck:

O’Connor popped out from below the goal line on the other side of the net unmarked and was rewarded for his efforts.

Ryan Graves has struggled mightily of late and found himself demoted to the third pairing for this game. So, of course he scored a goofy goal several shifts into the demotion. This was a minute and change after O’Connor’s tally:

While that was a low-percentage shot that produced a goal thanks to a bounce, I have to give a shout to Rickard Rakell for the smooth play he made behind the net as he dropped the puck off for Crosby. Subtle pick on the defender to create some space to cap it off.

But … could it really be? The Penguins shifting the tides in Boston? Taking the bull by the horns?

Not so fast.