Hey everyone.

Something's Bruin has been around for 6 months, a very, very short time in terms of a blog. This blog, however, is my life blood and I hope that it shows in the stuff I write. Sure, I may not get every game preview or recap in, but hey, that's life right?

Our good friend Cole Jones at The Other 6 Seconds recommended our site to a network called Bloguin. Apparently Bloguin liked us enough that we were asked to be part of their blogging network.

Don't be scared, Bloguin has already said that we are able to be ourselves, post what we want and express ourselves like we have been doing to date. The only thing changing is the layout.

So don't worry everyone, we've moved!

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...

It isn't a secret to see that the Boston Bruins are having a dismal start of the season. The biggest issue is their specialty teams, both the power play (0 for 16 their last 3 games) and their penalty kill (8 for 25 on the PK). Today the Boston Bruins announced their plans to release their "special" penalty kill.

"We're really excited about running the C.A.T.O program." GM Peter Chiarelli said in an e-mail he sent out to the press.

After doing some sleuthing, it seems that the C.A.T.O program will be unveiled in Dallas.

After the 2008-2009 season, The Bruins and an unnamed Massachusetts bio chem company developed a type of serum that will allow their players to function at a higher level.

C.A.T.O, which stands for "Chara Ate The Opposition" was highly effective in previous tests, though there were some failures (see: Hal Gill)

It is not sure how this program will work out. We sat with Zdeno Chara to question him about the program.

"Chara get mad. CHARA SMASH!" was the only thing he said before smashing our table into pieces.

How will this make the penalty kill? Probably pretty good.

The Boston Bruins will end their home stand with a record of 2-3 after a disappointing loss to the Colorado Avalanche. Mark Recchi, Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder all put the puck in the net for Boston as they did not maintain a lead at all today.

After the Bruins tied the game at 2 goals a piece, David Jones capitalized on what seemed to be a Bruins line-change mistake and found himself with a breakaway on Tuukka Rask, which he put in top shelf.

The Bruins played some good hockey, despite the score. They were down 2-0 before Recchi and Wheeler tied the game up, but once Colorado went up 4-2, it was a hill to steep to climb.

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The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

The second line of Wheeler, Krejci and Ryder played extremely well tonight. The line garnered 5 points tonight and was their best line of the night, which is a change of pace because the fourth line of Bitz, Thornton and Begin have been the best on the season.

The Bad

The defense looked confused and were not set for most of the game. The speed of the Avalanche kept the Bruins defensemen scrambling. Andrew Ference and Matt Hunwick played extremely poorly tonight, especially with the David Jones breakaway.

The Ugly

The Bruins specialty teams are anything but special. The power play was once again miserable as the Bruins went 0 for 5 on the man advantage. Also, the Bruins went 0-2 on the PK and now are an eye-popping 8 for 25 on the PK in this young season.

Stat of the day:

The Bruins are 0-16 on the PP in their last 3 games.

Quote of the Night:

"They stunk. I'd rather watch donkey basketball and the court isn't being continually swpet to clear the feces." -My friend Joe via text message.

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."

The Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks have one thing in common, they both looked terrible in their season openers. The Bruins, however, looked like they turned that awful start around with a 7-2 victory over Carolina.

Anaheim (0-1-1) opened the season against San Jose and quickly saw themselves staring at a 4-0 hole after two periods. They eventually lost to San Jose 4-1. Tuesday they met with the Minnesota Wild, and despite carrying a 3-0 lead into the third period, lost the game 4-3 in overtime.

Boston (1-1-0) didn't fare to well in their opener either after getting slapped around by Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. Unlike Anaheim though, the Bruins dominated in their second game against the Carolina Hurricanes, winning 7-2.

Last season the Bruins brought the whooping stick on the Ducks, defeating them 6-0. Michael Ryder and Chuck Kobasew had 2 goals a piece in the game and Tim Thomas had 35 saves for the shutout.

I am looking at something similar this time around. Anaheim has the talent to be a very good team, but it seems their goaltending is something less than desirable. My guess is Jonas Hiller will get the start in net for Anaheim because Jean-Sebastien Giguere started Tuesday in Minnesota.

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.

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.

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.

Projected Bruins line-up:

Milan Lucic-Marc Savard-Marco Sturm
Blake Wheeler-David Krejci-Michael Ryder
Mark Recchi-Patrice Bergeron-Chuck Kobasew
Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz

Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
Matt Hunwick-Dennis Wideman
Mark Stuart-Andrew Ference

Tim Thomas

Predictions:

Anaheim Ducks 1 Boston Bruins 4

Anaheim goals: Bobby Ryan

Boston goals: Milan Lucic, Chuck Kobasew, Marco Sturm (2)

It appears that Milan Lucic has signed a 3 year extension that will keep him with the Boston Bruins, or so the Bruins twitter account tells us. Check that, I just got a text from the Bruins saying the same thing.

Did you just hear that? Boston just let out a collective cheerful glee.

Lucic being kept in the fold for three years (2012-2013 season) means a few things:

1) The future captain gets to stick around for awhile.
2) One less headache when the season is over and all those contracts are up.

Ok, maybe it is just a couple.

In all honesty here, having Lucic around for three years is huge for this club. He is as close to the heart and soul of a team as anyone can be. Lucic provides a spark that no one else on the team can and is clearly a fan favorite because of this.

He brings a certain energy and fearlessness that hasn't been on the team since Neely left us. Seeing a deal like this shows us, the fans, that the Bruins management is smart and knows that not only can they win this year but in the future as well.

I can leave work with a smile on my face tonight!