TAMPA — The numbers in the Eastern Conference standings do not look good for the Bruins. But even more troubling than their tenuous grasp of a playoff position is the fact that a good portion of the players don’t really seem to care too much.

At this time of the NHL season, the teams fighting for their playoff lives must be playing with emotion, desperation and an all-out commitment to trying to win.

The Bruins yesterday gave, let’s face it, a fairly half-hearted effort against the talented Tampa Bay Lightning, who outclassed their guests far more than the 5-3 final score suggests.

The B’s started well, with a goal 33 seconds in by Patrice Bergeron (No. 21). But they were buried by a flurry of Tampa Bay goals, three of them coming on just four shots in the first period. Eventually up 4-1, the Bolts put their game on cruise control, and the B’s added a couple of irrelevant late goals by Zdeno Chara (his eighth) and Daniel Paille (sixth).

“We just kind of fell apart in a lot of areas,” said B’s coach Claude Julien, his team 0-3-2 in its past five.

The B’s are just one point ahead of Ottawa in the battle for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. The streaking Senators have two games in hand and can jump ahead of the B’s with a home win tonight against San Jose.

The B’s came in with a 10-game winning streak against Tampa Bay, including a pair of victories this season. But when they so badly needed another win, they submitted a stinker.

The trouble began at 5:49 of the first period, after Tuukka Rask made a fine stop on Brenden Morrow in close. But the rebound was rapped in by Vladislav Namestnikov, knotting the score at 1.

Then a remarkable sight: Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos, angered by a Brad Marchand hit, started a fight with the Bruins pest at 10:05. It wasn’t much of a brawl, but it plainly got the Bolts and their fans all pumped up.

At 10:47, Lightning grinder J.T. Brown simply skated right between Chara and Dennis Seidenberg, popping loose down the center of the slot to snap a forehand shot off the right post and in behind Rask.

On the home team’s next shot, just 15 seconds later, defenseman Anton Stralman one-timed a slapper from the right point. With Rask well-screened by Seidenberg, Zach Trotman and Namestnikov, the goalie barely moved as the shot flew past him on the stick side.

At 7:54 of the second, Rask only waved at a shot from the high slot by defenseman Jason Garrison and quickly headed off the ice as Niklas Svedberg entered.

“It was just one of those 90-mph knuckleballs (that) was coming at my face and then went left,” Rask said. “On a better night, I probably save it.”

As they reached the end of a grueling stretch in which they played 11 games in 18 days, the B’s had few answers for the speed and skill of the Bolts, the highest-scoring team in the NHL.

For Marchand, who continues to play hard every time out, it’s incredibly frustrating that not every teammate gives his best effort.

“You look at other teams around the league that we’re battling with, they’re going on every single night,” Marchand said. “It seems like everyone is playing their system (and) playing the right way.

“(But) we don’t know if we’re going to get that on each given night. We can’t afford that. We need everyone to be committed, playing our system and having our best game every night. I’ve said it before: If we have one passenger, it’s enough to cost us the game.

“We were in a pretty good position (in the standings) there for a little while. The fact we let that slip, I’m sure it ticks a lot of guys in this room off. You know what? That being said, we can still do it. We still have nine games left. We can make this work.”

Julien focused on fatigue as a contributor to his team’s untimely collapse. The B’s get a respite until Thursday, when they face another challenging opponent in Anaheim. By then, they might be on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, but there is still confidence in the room the season can be saved.

“Defeated? No,’’ winger Chris Kelly said. “We’ve lost some big games, but I still think we control our destiny. We have nine games left. If we go out and play well for these nine games, then good things will happen.”