The Avalanche have four players tied for points with 5.

Wojtek Wolski leads the Avalanche in goals with 4.

Marc Savard leads the Bruins in points with 5.

Steve Begin leads the Bruins in assists with 4.

Derek Morris and Michael Ryder lead the Bruins powerplay point totals with 2 apiece.

Milan Hejduk and Kyle Quincey lead the Avalanche in powerplay points with 3.

The Avalance have a team +/- of +5.

The Bruins have a team +/- of -5.

Craig Anderson and Tuukka Rask are expected to start in net this afternoon.

Dennis Wideman is day-to-day so, Johnny Boychuk will be making his Bruins debut against his former club.

Matt Moulson and Tavarez lead the Islanders with 3 points.

Marc Savard leads the Bruins with 4 points.

Shawn Thornton leads the Bruins in shots on goal with 11.

The Bruins team +/- is -10 while the Islanders have a team +/- of -19.

Marco Sturm leads the Bruins in goals with 2.

Dwayne Roloson is expected to start for the Islanders as he was first off of the ice for the morning skate.

The Bruins have yet to announce whether or not Tim Thomas or Tuukka Rask will start.

Edit 6:33pm: Tuukka Rask will start between the pipes tonight

After a solid first period by both teams, Marco Sturm opened the scoring with a blazing slap shot from the top of the left face-off circle off of a feed from Marc Savard.  Both Tim Thomas and Jonas Hiller put together valiant efforts in the first period to show that the rest of the game might go just as such.  That was not the case.

Early on in the second period, Teemu Selanne potted back-to-back powerplay goals just 1:23 apart to quickly let all of the air out of the building.  From there, the Bruins were lackluster at best letting the 4th line show far more effort than any of the other three lines combined.

Thursday night looked very similar to last Thursday night’s opening night affair with the Washington Capitals except in that game, Thomas looked a little better.  I expect Tuukka Rask to get the start on Saturday when rookie John Tavarez and the New York Islanders come to town.

Scoring Summary:

1- BOS: Sturm 2 -(Savard, Wideman)

1- ANH: Selanne 1 (PP)- (Niedermayer)

2- ANH: Selanne 2 (PP)- (Perry, Koivu)

3- ANH: Perry 1 – (Wisniewski)

4- ANH: Artyukhin 2- (Lupul, Wisniewski)

5- ANH: Ryan 1- (Niedermayer)

6- ANH: Perry 2 (SH)- (Lupul)

The Ducks have four players tied with one goal apiece while the Bruins have eight players tied at one tally.

Dennis Wideman leads the Bruins in shots on goal with 7.

Tim Thomas and Jonas Hiller are expected to be the starting netminders in tonight’s contest.

Who is Milan Lucic?

Correct!

This afternoon the Boston Bruins did announce that they have resigned Milan Lucic to a three year contract extension that is good through the 2012-2013 season.  Per club policy, the financials were not disclosed.

McKeon’s Take: Obviously this is a fantastic move by Peter Chiarelli.  Getting a guy like Lucic locked up for a three more years is huge for the progression of this team.  It would be great if he took somewhat of a hometown discount but, he is very deserving of whatever he gets (within reason of course).  It is rumored that the deal is worth just over $12 Million so there will be an annual cap hit of just over $4 million.  I wonder if this is why he missed practice yesterday…hmmm…Get used to more pictures like the one below for the next four seasons!

Anyhow, as much as I would like to comment on Saturday’s game, I can’t.  For lack of a better term I was in a “different state of mind” during the game and things are what scientists call, hazy.  With that said, I can definitely remember being very impressed with the 4th line and the ability of Julien & Co. to run four lines out there and not have to worry about any real match-ups.  I love teams who coach their team and not try to constantly compensate for what the other team is doing.  You’ll win 100% of your games if you are forcing the other team to compensate for you than the other way around.

More to come tomorrow…

The Bruins started off the game controlling the play for the first half of the first period but, from there it all fell apart.

“The first 10 minutes we played good hockey, and then we threw it away and gradually played worse and worse” said Marc Savard.

That pretty much sums up the majority of the night.  A guy that I was very unimpressed with was Milan Lucic.  He had a lot of trouble handling passes and stick handling near a defender.  Also, he was caught gliding on Ovechkin’s second goal of the night in the low slot.  The one bright spot on the scorecard was Patrice Bergeron scoring a 3rd period goal midway through the frame to ruin the shutout for Jose Theodore. I’m also glad that Shawn Thornton decided to save a little face and drop the gloves because other than that, it was a pure beat down.

Scoring Summary

WAS- 1. Laich 1 (PP): Backstrom, Ovechkin

WAS- 2. Ovechkin 1: Semin, Backstrom

WAS- 3. Laich 2 (PP): Backstrom, Semin

WAS- 4. Ovechkin 2: Poti, Laich

BOS- 1. Bergeron 1: Begin, Stuart

Goalies

Theodore: 19 of 20

Thomas: 30 of 34

This team will not win by getting 20 shots on goal.  Hopefully this was just them clearing through the cobwebs of the off-season.

Tonight, the Bruins drop the puck for the first time tonight, when it counts, against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.  Is it strange that the Capitals team name is always accompanied by Ovechkin’s name? No.  The guy deserves every bit of recognition he gets because he is, hands down, the most complete and most electrifying player in the league.  The opposing goaltender will be Jose Theodore which comes as a total shock because of how well Semyon Varlamov played in the playoffs last year.  Here is the line-up for the black and gold:

LW – C – RW

Lucic – Savard – Sturm

Wheeler – Krejci – Ryder

Recchi – Bergeron – Kobasew

Thornton – Begin – Bitz

LD – RD

Chara – Morris

Ference – Wideman

Stuart – Hunwick

G

Thomas

Rask

As soon as I can see the bios I will get OCTOBER MADNESS underway.  Hockey starts tomorrow night!!!