Bruins fans should probably step away from the ledges and quickly put aside the memories of Thursday’s disheartening 5-2 loss to the Canadiens in Game One of their best-of-seven NHL quarterfinal series. After all, the same thing happened to their Western Conference counterpart, the Detroit Red Wings, who dropped an overtime decision at home to the eighth-seeded Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.

If this were a best-of-five series — a situation for which the Celtics are now preparing — a loss on home ice would be significant cause for alarm, but in a lengthy seven-game series, one home loss is not necessarily grounds for retiring to the panic room.

My rapidly fading memory takes me back to 1989, when the Bruins got pummeled 6-0 by Buffalo in the playoff opener at the Garden. "How could this be?" cried the masses. Yet the B’s proceeded to dismantle the Sabres in four straight games to advance to the semifinals against the Habs (where they lost in five). In fact, in ’90, ’91, and ’92, the Bruins also lost the home playoff opener, only to prevail ultimately in each of those series.

So hope springs eternal for our Original Six club, although it may be worth mentioning — by your faithful devil’s advocate — that the specter of the 1993 opening-round playoff series looms distantly but significantly as the current Eastern Conference champs continue their battle with Montreal.

That year, the Bruins steamrolled to the second-best record in the NHL, taking the then–Adams Division with a 51-26-7 record. Their point total of 109 was second only to the juggernaut Pittsburgh Penguins, who won 56 games that season on the heels of consecutive Cups in ’91 and ’92. The B’s drew the eighth-seeded Sabres that spring, and when Buffalo stole a 5-4 overtime win at the Garden on April 18 — coincidentally, the same date as Thursday’s opener versus the Habs — Bruins fans got a bit unnerved, but not nearly as desperate as they became when the Sabres drilled Boston 4-0 two nights later to take a 2-0 series lead heading back to upstate New York.

Hub hearts sank when Buffalo pulled out a 4-3 overtime win in game three, and the collapse was complete late that Saturday night when Sabres bruiser Brad May tallied in overtime to give the underdogs a stunning 6-5 victory and a 4-0 series sweep. The Bruins had managed to lose three games in the extra session, and a glorious regular season — highlighted by Brian Sutter’s Bruins coaching debut and sparkling years by Adam Oates and Joe Juneau — was quickly forgotten in the wake of the disastrous playoff elimination.

I particularly remember that outcome because my wife had expended great effort securing tickets for Game Five in Boston as a belated birthday present. The prospect of a fifth game’s not being played was unimaginable at the time (barring a Boston sweep), but somehow it happened, and it remains a bitter memory to this day for many Bruins fans.

In the five playoff series in which the Bruins have participated since then, Boston has suffered a first-round loss in three. However, the hometown lads this year are certainly battle-tested, as their surprising regular-season performance — which completed a worst-to-first season after a two-year playoff drought — included 20 one-goal wins and 11 two-goal victories among their 43 triumphs. In fact, of their 82 regular-season games, 62 were decided by a goal or two. The Black and Gold are, for better or worse, not accustomed to blowouts, and they should be able to rebound from their ghastly performance in the playoff opener. However, a similar performance in the nightcap of Sunday’s FleetCenter playoff doubleheader could very well sound the death knell for the Bruins’ Stanley Cup chances — a bell that has tolled annually since 1972.

I still like the Bruins in six.

* * *

Meanwhile, the parquet is down for the Celtics’ playoff opener on Sunday afternoon. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the Eastern Conference playoffs could be entertaining and are definitely wide open, but they’ll probably be ugly and serve as a prelude for the winner’s NBA Finals destruction at the hands of the Western Conference finalist.

The Celtics have a real chance to do some damage in the Eastern playoffs, and while they have matched up well with the top-seeded Nets as well as fellow playoff entries Indiana, Toronto, Charlotte, and Orlando, the Green probably would have preferred to avoid the 76ers at all costs. Instead, the Celtics drew Philly in the first round, hearkening back to the glory days of Boston sports when the Celtics-76ers and Bruins-Canadiens rivalries were all the rage.

The Sixers took three out of four regular-season contests over Boston, and if Allen Iverson is sufficiently recovered from a broken hand, he will make the difference for Philly. He missed the last 14 regular-season games, and should he play, he could be rusty for Sunday’s opener. The Celtics need to take the first two games, because they’ve had difficultly winning in Philadelphia over the years, and a split or worse in the FleetCenter could give the Sixers an opportunity to put Boston away at home.

I don’t like this match-up at all and would have preferred that the Celtics get anyone but the 76ers in the first round. These three-of-five series have too many pitfalls to begin with, and facing your most-formidable conference foe right off the bat is definitely not what a young team, seven years removed from its last playoff series, needs right now.

Nonetheless, the Celtics have a chance if their players not named Paul or Antoine can step up and make solid contributions, the team shoots the lights out — particularly from three-point range — and Iverson is hampered by injury or a suffocating Boston defense.

Otherwise, I reluctantly submit that the Green may exit quickly and quietly, thus avoiding the fate that awaits the Eastern Conference finalist: a trouncing by Sacramento, LA, or Dallas in June.

Philly in four.

Damn.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com.