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Seventeen seconds.

That’s how much time Cayden Primeau gave his team on Thursday evening. Seventeen seconds passed between Brendan Gallagher’s goal that put the Canadiens up 5-4 and the deflection of Primeau’s stick into his own net that effectively put the game out of reach with four minutes to play.

It wasn’t nearly enough. Not traveling in Boston. From the early penalty to the bitter end, Primeau wasn’t the goalie worthy of the backup job, with a .910 save percentage and 2.99 goals-against average in 23 games last season.

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Primeau allowed six goals on 29 shots in a 6-4 loss to the Bruins. He was nervous with the puck, he was pushed back into his net on that crucial play, and he smelled what should have been a glove save with a clean look from 20 feet away. Either he has to be better or Samuel Montembeault has to do like Carey Price and start 70 games.

That wasn’t all on Primeau. Not remotely. But if a goalie’s job is to give his team a chance to win, Primeau failed. He gave up two goals to Mark Kastelic, who scored five goals in 63 games for Ottawa last season.

After the Canadiens won an episode of survival in the form of a 48-shot barrage from the mighty Leafs in the opening game, it was no surprise that for much of Thursday it looked like they had left their legs at the checked baggage counter in Dorval .

But more than that, the Bruins looked bigger, stronger and tougher. While the Canadiens appear to have done a solid job in their rebuild, the Bruins have been masters of retooling. As players age and retire or become unable to stay under the salary cap, Boston finds a way to stay at or near the top.

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They haven’t been able to parlay their strong regular-season play into another Stanley Cup, but as long as they beat Toronto every spring, the Bruins have done their job.

For a rebuilding team like the Canadiens, the focus now tends to be on the young players, particularly the surprising Lane Hutson. The skinny kid from Boston University is next level, period.

If you thought Hutson would be shy or hesitant in his first extended stint with the Canadiens, you were wrong. He has the guts of a burglar. He wants the puck and knows what to do with it. He makes minor mistakes (and was victimized by a cheap hold call against the Bruins), but Hutson’s vision and movement will destroy defenses, especially on the power play.

Should one of his mistakes land back in his own zone, Hutson has the speed and skill to bounce back and cover it up. Martin St. Louis will ease his start to playing time, but so far he has passed every test.

The narrative Thursday night, however, belonged to three much-maligned veterans on the roster: Joel Armia, Josh Anderson and (especially) Brendan Gallagher, who appears to have lost five years on the calendar.

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If Gallagher can be this effective, the calculus changes radically. He is, or can be, what Brad Marchand is to the Bruins, that pesky pest you can’t shake, a fire hydrant who can get in front of the net as well as any other power forward in the league.

Armia, on the other hand, has filled a much larger role admirably and shown some brilliant passing ability, with Gallagher being the beneficiary. But perhaps the most heartening sight was Anderson nearly scoring a short-handed goal early on, then deflecting in a shot from Guhle for his first goal of the season.

If these three can play like they did in the first two games, it will be much easier for the Canadiens to stay within reach until Patrik Laine is back in the lineup to provide some offensive power care for.

Everyone loves the young players on every roster because they’re the new plaything and you don’t know what their ceiling may be – but in the brutal ultra-marathon of an 82-game NHL season, you need experience and toughness and smarts from the veterans .

Speaking of veterans, it has to be said that this team likes Michael Pezzetta better than any other young forward out there. Pezzetta brings the fire and physical play that was so desperately needed against Boston.

The same goes for Jayden Struble when he’s healthy. Struble isn’t a veteran, but he plays like one. This is a better team with Pezzetta and Struble in the lineup – and it needs to get even better, because Ottawa is in town Saturday night, where the Canadiens are making their third straight divisional appearance to start the season.

Despite Travis Green’s strange hiring as head coach, the Senators should automatically improve with former Bruins Linus Ullmark in goal. After Primeau’s appearance in Boston, the Canadiens will have to play at least two-thirds of their games with Montembeault, which would mean 54 or 55 starts.

Ullmark stopped 30 of 31 shots Thursday night as the Senators defeated the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Montembeault stunned the Leafs with 48 saves on Wednesday.

Keep playing.

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