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"Let's just move by that," Coach John Tortorella said when asked if the lockout was to blame for the Rangers' uneven performance. "I'm not going to keep talking about the short season. We've started the season, and we did not play well enough to win. The Bruins did."

Unlike most N.H.L. teams, the Rangers did not try to simulate a game by playing a scrimmage against their A.H.L. affiliate or an intrasquad scrimmage during the six-day training-camp period that ended Friday — they did not even practice in public.

"I wanted to work with our team," Tortorella said about why he chose not to stage a scrimmage.

Whether the lack of a scrimmage was a factor, the Rangers started the game in a bit of a fog. They were outshot, 14-7, outhit and took a series of penalties that left them on their heels.

"There was a lot of rust in the first period," said the team's prized off-season acquisition, Rick Nash, who looked strong in his Rangers debut. "There was a lot of hype in the last few days to play this game, and we didn't play the way wanted to."

But he added about the Rangers' home opener Sunday against Pittsburgh, "The good thing is we play again tomorrow night."

On Saturday in Boston, the fans, the players and the league were out to banish the memory of the four-month lockout, the third the owners have called in two decades.

No messages recalling the lockout were written on the ice, like the much-ridiculed "Thank you fans" the league mandated in all rinks after the 2004-5 stoppage. The pregame ceremony was brief and to the point: some bagpipers, an introduction for each Bruin, the national anthem, and the season was on.

Four players made their debut in a Rangers uniform, including Nash, the 30-goal player acquired from Columbus. He pulled off some terrific moves, including a couple in which he skated backward to shield the puck from a defenseman, then turned 180 degrees to shoot.

But ultimately Nash was stymied, limited to two shots and an assist on the Rangers' lone goal.

There were fights — two in a row from these two teams that led the league in fighting majors last season, the Rangers with 65 and the Bruins with 61. Mike Rupp traded blows with Boston's Shawn Thornton midway through the second period, and three seconds later, Stu Bickel fought the Bruins' Gregory Campbell. The crowd seemed to love it.

Yet the lockout was not completely forgotten, thanks to one of its architects. During a news conference before the game, Jeremy Jacobs, the Bruins' owner and chairman of the N.H.L. Board of Governors, blamed the players union for the four-month impasse.

Jacobs began by reading a prepared statement apologizing for the lockout, but it included a veiled criticism of the union.

"I wanted nothing more than to have the season start in October," Jacobs, the hard-line chairman of the N.H.L. Board of Governors, said. "Make no mistake — it should have."

Asked why he thought a settlement was not reached in October, Jacobs said, "You'd really have to ask the other side that," adding, "there was no expression of desire to make a deal."

"I'm not going to give him credit for anything," Jacobs said in answer to a question about Donald Fehr, the union's executive director.

But on the ice and in the stands, the lockout was well in the past. Milan Lucic opened the scoring 14 minutes 14 seconds into the game, knocking a rebound of a shot from David Krejci past Henrik Lundqvist. Daniel Paille made the score, 2-0, for Boston 8:20 into the second period with a tip-in.

The Rangers finally struck at 12:50, when Brad Richards nailed the top corner of the net behind Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask with a wrist shot from the top of the circle.

At 7:07 of the third period, Lundqvist made a diving glove save to Rob Krejci and keep the score at 2-1.

"It was a fun save, but I made it in desperation," said Lundqvist, who finished with 31 saves.

But at 8:13, a shot from Johnny Boychuk seemed to deflect off Patrice Bergeron's stick past Lundqvist, making the score 3-1.

"We definitely have a way to go," Richards said. "We have to learn some things pretty quickly."