Bruins can't survive Avalanche 4-3

The Bruins may have had a bit of a tryptophan hangover after having too much turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. The Bruins came out of the gate sluggish, giving the Avalanche an early 2-0 lead. The B's made the game close, but the Avs ultimately handed the B's a 4-3 loss.

The Avs got on the board first, when Milan Hejduk scored a powerplay goal 6:15 into the game with Matt Hunwick in the box for a hook.

Colorado would strike again just 37 seconds later when Scott Hannan found the back of the net off a rebound from a long shot by David Jones to spot the Avs an early 2-0 lead.

The Bruins spent 5:02 on the powerplay in the opening period, but just couldn't seem to convert with the man advantage and filed off the ice to the dressing room down 2-0 after one.

The Bruins pulled to within one at 7:45 of the second period. Patrice Bergeron set up behind the net and fed a pass out front to Mark Recchi at the left circle, whose quick shot beat Craig Anderson for his first goal of the season. 

The B's evened the game up 2:25 later with a goal in transition. Micheal Ryder threw a puck on net from the right wing boards and Blake Wheeler batted the puck out of mid-air while driving to the net for his second goal of the season.

The Bruins PK woes continued when Marek Svatos put back his own rebound with 6:28 reamaing in the second to give Colorado a 3-2 lead.

The special teams problems continued  for the B's on the power play. With the Bruins on the man advantage with 3:10 left in the middle period, they coughed up the puck in the neutral zone when 3 black jerseys collapsed on the puck, which sprung David Jones in on a breakaway. Jones fired a hard wrister from the slot that beat Rask for the short-handed goal and a two goal lead.

Michael Ryder pulled the B's to within one at 6:24 of the third period on a backhander off a rebound in front.

The Bruins showed a lot of intensity and controlled the play for most of the third, but it was too little, too late as the Bruins dug themselves into a hole early and were not able to stage another comeback.

Notes:

- Milan Lucic and Kyle Quincey got into a bit of a wrestling match after the final whistle.

- Special teams play continues to be a major issue for the B's. The Bruins were only able to kill off 1 of 3 Avs powerplays today and were 0 for 5 today.

- Patrice Bergeron was 72% from the dot (13 of 18)

- Johnny Boychuk was +2 and recorded 4 hits in his '09-'10 debut.

- Colorado blocked 21 of the 53 shots that the Bruins directed towards goals (32 shots on goal).

- The Bruins return to action on Friday night when they travel to Dallas to take on the Stars