You know it's a Thursday night because the Bruins are being blown out in a hockey game. If "blown out" isn't your term of choice, you may insert it with "embarrassed", "maimed", "smashed", "annihilated", etc. I will choose to use "blown out".

I know that the season is still in its infancy, but what we've seen is a Bruins team lose two out of three games pretty handily. They've been flat, have played effortless hockey and once the score board tilts to the opposing team, the Bruins can't put it together to come back.

Tonight the Bruins lost their second game of the year in a 6-1 beating by Anaheim. To give Boston credit, they outplayed the Ducks in the first period and started the second period up 1-0 with a nice slapshot by Marco Sturm.

After that, however, it seemed the Bruins decided to give up. Lets take a look at the "Bruins Keys To Winning" from the Ducks/Bruins preview.

Bruins Keys To Winning:

1. Solid Defense - Anaheim has guys that can score (Bobby Ryan, Ryan Getzlaf, Cory Perry, Teemu Selanne) and guys that can make plays (Saku Koivu). To keep this team off of the scoreboard, the Bruins will need their defense to play a tough, disciplined gamer of puck.
* The Bruins defense was anything by solid. In the second period, Anaheim (actually just Selanne) scored within 82 seconds (both on the power play) and never looked back. The Bruins defense looked sluggish, confused and was put to shame by the Ducks forwards.

2. Hard and Heavy Forecheck - The B's have the type of forwards that can bang along the boards and provide a heavy forecheck. Patrice Bergeron, Shawn Thornton and Milan Lucic are just a couple of the forwards who will need to pester the Anaheim defense and keep the puck in the offensive zone. The less opportunities for guys like Ryan and Getzlaf, the better.
* Just non-existent.

3. Strong Power Play - Against the Hurricanes the Bruins went 4 for 8 on the power play (PP). That number is an aberration as no team will constantly put up 50% on the PP, but if they can run a smooth PP consisting of a bevy of shots and possible a goal or two it should put the Ducks on tilt.
- Once the Ducks went up 2-1, Boston had many chances on the power play and were barely able to get shots off, let alone be productive. The Bruins ended up 0 for 6 on the power play AND gave up a short handed goal to Cory Perry at the end of the game.

On that note, what we saw from the specialty unit tonight was absolutely disgusting. Anaheim was able to go 100% on the PP and the PK.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good

The fourth line played extremely well tonight and Julien rewarded their good play with a shot on the power play. For both losses this season, the fourth line was the best, which is either really good for them or really bad for the rest of the team.

Marco Sturm scored his second goal of the season tonight on a nice slap shop from around the blue-line area. Good to see Sturm get his legs underneath him.

The Bad

Goaltending. Tim Thomas wasn't particularly sharp tonight after the first period, but not all of it is his fault. For both of Selanne's goals, the PK left him high and dry, specifically on the second one.

The Ugly

Special teams, defense, offense, passing...etc. It was all pretty bad tonight.

The Bruins continue their trek to .500 when the New York Islanders come into the Garden on Saturday @ 7:00 pm.

Quote of the night:

"(There are) too many skilled guys not going, and I'll have to deal with the dirty laundry in the dressing room," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "When you need to keep talking about your fourth line being your best line, it doesn't bode well for your hockey team."