Unless you were living under a rock last year, you probably heard what happened at the Garden last year between the Bruins and the Stars.

Steve Ott, aka "The Knee Seeking Scud Missile" fought with Shawn Thornton, tangled with Shane Hnidy, was drilled by Andrew Ference (yes, I said that) and basically caused a brawl towards the end of the game. Ott, however, will not be playing tonight due to a flu or as I call it Lucitis.

Last year the Bruins trounced the Stars in Boston to the tune of 5-1.

The Bruins Keys To Winning

1. Effective Special Teams play
- The Bruins power play and penalty kill have been absolutely dreadful to start the season. In their last 3 games, the Bruins are 0-16 on the power play and did not kill a penalty against Colorado or Anaheim. If they are able to be successful on the power play and not give up a shorthanded goal like they did against Anaheim and Washington, then they'll be able to pull this one out.

2. Bring the "Big and Bad" in Big, Bad Bruins.
This year's squad came out with fire in the belly for the Carolina Hurricanes and thus played like the team we've come to know and love. Since then, they've shown flashes of that team but haven't been able to put it together on a consistent basis. If guys like Thornton, Lucic and Begin can bang the bodies around and have great 2-way play by forwards like Bergeron and Savard, it should limit the effectiveness of the Stars attack.

3. Pepper Turco
Turco isn't the guy he was hyped up to be. Turco can be broken and his mental state is anything but strong. Last season, the Bruins were able to pepper him with lots of shots, from both the slot and the point and were able to eventually run him from the game. The Bruins will have to get good shots on Turco and they will be able to beat him.

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As some of you may know, coach Claude Julien made a minor change to the lines for the road trip. Ryder will now play on the 1st line with Sturm and Savard, with Sturm moving to his natural position LW. Lucic will now play with Krejci and Blake Wheeler.

Projected Lineup:
Sturm-Savard-Ryder
Lucic-Krejci-Wheeler
Kobasew-Bergeron-Recchi
Thornton-Begin-Bitz

Chara-Morris
Ference-Hunwick
Stuart-Boychuk

Thomas

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Prediction: Bruins 3 Stars 4 (OT)

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For those who forgot...