He’s not a No. 2 defenseman, but Adam McQuaid is playing like one in the early going.

“I just wanted to play my game and be solid,” McQuaid said after Monday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning about his preseason goals. “If I was called on to do that a little bit more I want to be able to do that. It’s about finding that consistency.”

What were the off-season odds of McQuaid being called the Boston Bruins’ No. 2 defenseman on opening night — and then again Saturday night against Montreal? Or even No. 3 when Zdeno Chara returned Monday afternoon against the reigning Eastern Conference champions?

“If we play hard and we play the way I expect them to play, we have a chance to win this game,” Claude Julien said before the matinee matchup with the Bolts. “So we’re not going in there playing second fiddle.”

Into his seventh year on Causeway Street, McQuaid had played that second fiddle as the fifth, sixth or even seventh defenseman, while management figured out whether to make the long-term commitment to the 29-year-old Prince Edward Island native.

When Dougie Hamilton and Matt Bartkowski headed west in the off season — as Chara and Dennis Seidenberg got a year older — McQuaid forced a front-office decision, and was handed a four-year contract extension at $3 million a year for the next three seasons and $2 million the last year. In NHL dollars and years, a steal for any 6-foot-4, 212-pound defenseman — in his prime — who can play most of the schedule and keep his stats at least neutral.

McQuaid played 63 games last year with a minus-2 and but only totaled seven points. His best seasons for the Black-and-Gold were 2010-11 and 2011-12 at 67 and 72 games with 15 and 10 points, respectively; better were his plus-minus stats at plus-30 and plus-16, respectively.

Paired with Torey Krug, McQuaid had logged a two-game total of 36:41, and the only defenseman with a positive plus-minus. In the opener, all of his minutes were 5-on-5; in Game 2, Julien used McQuaid on the penalty-kill for 5:13.

McQuaid and Krug were again the starters Monday when Boston jumped out, 2-0, before coughing up two to end the first period deadlocked. The first goal was McQuaid’s first hiccough of the season when former Boston College star Brian Boyle scored; the replay, however, showing McQuaid playing in perfect position.

Two five-hole dribblers past Rask put the Bolts up, 3-2, before Loui Eriksson’s second power-play tally – Boston’s third – tied the game at 3-3. A Steven Stamkos power-play laser at 15:17 gave Tampa the lead entering the final period. Jonathan Drouin dribbled yet another five-hole roller past Rask at 5:38 for Tampa’s fifth goal in just 19 total shots on Rask to that point. Valtteri Flippula guided one off his skate at 15:58 to close out the scoring.

Boston totaled 30 shots on former UMaine star Ben Bishop in the 6-3 final.

“Right now my focus is more on our whole group here,” an exasperated Julien said after the blowout and preferring not to single out any individual play. “How do we get better more than it is about one game. I’m sure everybody in that dressing room can be a little better.”

For McQuaid, however, it is now three steady performances out of the blocks.

Monday afternoon, a final log of 17:30 and a minus-1 to keep that stat at even (the only defenseman) after the three losses by a combined score of 16-7. Add a few blocked shots, and all in all, another good night’s work.

“We’ve got to be better and more consistent,” the soft-spoken McQuaid echoed, and among the few who has been consistent over the past five days.

“I’ve played against other team’s top lines, but maybe not as consistently on a nightly basis. I wanted to look at that as a good challenge. Ultimately I didn’t really pencil me in anywhere. It was about seeing where we all fit.”

Right now, Adam McQuaid is fitting in quite well.