If only David Backes could’ve given his former teammates an extra piece of meat.

A night after hosting a few his fellow Blues peers for dinner at his new place in Greater Boston, Backes was on the other side of the ice facing a team that gave him his break in the National Hockey League, the St. Louis Blues.

Of course, any player in the NHL will tell you that it feels a little weird at first when facing their former team for the first time. Backes, who captained the Blues from 2011-2016, was no exception.

“It was a little weird at first, but then you realize you’re in different jerseys and playing for keeps,” Backes admitted following Tuesday’s contest at TD Garden.

As emotional as Backes might have been, the former Blue put a message on a piece of tape to keep him focused.

“I told you before that I wanted to stay in the moment and I wrote that on the little wrist tape that I have there,” Backes said. “I wanted to stay in the moment and do what I can to help this team win games.”

Once things settled in, Backes helped the Bruins by the form of a power play goal at 7:44 of the first period to give his new teammates a 1-0 lead. Ironically enough, Backes first tally against his former team – and his fourth of the season – was the 20,000th goal in Bruins franchise history.

As nice as the goal was against his former team, Backes wanted something more important: a victory. That result didn’t come on this night.

Without the services of Zdeno Chara, who went to the locker room after his first shift of the second period and did not return, the Bruins could not fill his big void as they allowed four of the game’s next five goals – including three in the second period – and fell short on a third period surge to even things up as the Blues got the last laugh in the 4-2 victory.

“When you play your first game against your old team, it’s always great to get a goal and maybe get that monkey off your back,” head coach Claude Julien said about Backes’ first period tally. “He scored a goal there on the power play, you know, right place at the right time and strong in front of the net. He wanted to win this game as much as they wanted to beat him tonight I’m sure. But he played well and he scored a goal, so you can’t ask for more.”

“I wish – I think the whole team [wishes] we had a different outcome tonight,” Backes said. “We got a couple of good chances there late. I just thought we had a dry spell a little there in the second. They capitalized on a few chances, Zee [Chara] isn’t in the game and it takes us a little while to realize that life is going to move on and we’re going to be without the big man. As big of a part as he is on the team, we did a good job of regrouping and putting a push there at the end of the second and the third.”

After saying goodbye to his former teammates outside the Garden hallway, Backes and the rest of the Bruins will wonder if they will be without their captain for the foreseeable future.