Six and a half minutes into the third period, the Boston Bruins beat the Colorado netminder with a wicked shot from winger Michael Ryder, sending a thrilled Garden crowd up to their feet.

Sound like an old story? That’s because it is. Boy, is it ever.

It’s now been almost four years since the Bruins scored a goal at the Garden against the Avalanche. Granted, they’ve only squared off with Colorado twice over that stretch, but that’s somethin’ when you realize that the recent goal-scoring ineptitude against the Avs has left the B’s with zero wins at home versus their Western Conference counterparts since 1998. In their last three matchups with Colorado in Boston the Bruins have been held to just three goals on 101 shots on net, a (surprise, surprise) three percent shooting percentage. And all three losses have come against different Avalanche netminders, too, oddly enough, with J.S. Giguere earning Thursday’s win.

The problem for the Black-and-Gold? Well, it was a heavenly mix of self-inflicted nonsense and Avs-enforced game-planning that led to the Bruins’ first loss of the season.

Above all else, the 36-year-old Giguere had a more than easy time following the puck all game log. The Bruins rarely got traffic to the front of the net, were predictable in the offensive zone, and struggled to develop any sustainable pressure when playing a 5-on-5 game. A true rarity for the B’s. The Avalanche also hurt the Bruins (and then some) on the wings, and primarily in the speed game. Colorado, unsurprisingly, is a much better team than the heavy-footed Bruins in the skating game, and it showed in Boston’s first game in four nights. Despite keeping up with the Avalanche for the opening half of the first period, the Bruins faded (and fast), constantly chasing the Avs’ forwards around the ice in dogged pursuit of the puck. Again, that’s a rarity for Claude Julien’s club.

All of this -- and aided greatly by a Milan Lucic meltdown that put the top-line winger in the box for nearly 13 minutes in the third period -- spelled doom for the Bruins’ bid for a 3-0-0 start. And here, just three games into the season and for the 90th time in the club’s storied history, we wave goodbye to the potential of an 82-0-0 season.

But if we are lookin' for a scapegoat in Game No. 3 of the year, it's Lucic. Period.

Lucic, for as talented as he is and as loved as he is by the Boston faithful, has a reputation around the National Hockey League. He's a player that plays with an edge, but comes with a volatile temper. At 6-foot-4 and over 200 pounds, Lucic is a timebomb that's ready to go at any point, and a sellout Garden crowd is the proverbial match that lights it all up.

That's exactly what you saw happen late in the second period of Thursday night's loss, too. Taking issue with Avs' captain Gabriel Landeskog, Lucic continued to by all means toy with the Swedish forward, trying to get him to drop the gloves.and despite several steps from the referees to end the fracas, Lucic continued to try and get Landeskog, a player that missed 11 games with a concussion last year, to fight him. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Landeskog, young but not stupid, simply keeps his hands down by his side, and perhaps out of fear for his own life, opts not to fight Lucic. The absolute crumbling of Lucic's sanity, despite being defended by Julien and the B's after, with the keyword being 'soft' or 'unwarranted', prompted a 10-minute cooldown for No. 17.

This not only took a talent of Lucic's caliber out of the game for the opening half of the third period, but put Danny Paille on the club's top line. This, as you saw when Paille whiffed on a great feed from Krejci, didn't help the Bruins at all.

But you honestly don’t need me to sit here and tell you that Lucic and the Bruins didn’t play their best on Thursday night, but perhaps you do need me to sit here and calm you down after what was a more than respectable defeat, all things considered.

For Boston, losing to the 2013-14 Colorado Avalanche in October is not like losing to the 2012-13 Avalanche in April. The Avs, undoubtedly bolstered by the coaching style of the fiery Patrick Roy, are a different team in all facets of the game. Perhaps most notably, in their mindset. The Avalanche no longer have a defeatist attitude despite their inexperience, and that’s something that Roy noted. “We’re here to shock the hockey world,” he said after the win in Boston, and with Boston becoming the club’s fourth victim in as many games, it’s clear that they’re not messin’ around.

“You can tell they have some confidence and they have some good speed. They got some bounces that went their way on a couple of occasions at the blue lines but we still have to do a better job,” B’s center Patrice Bergeron, beat out by Matt Duchene in a footrace with the net empty, admitted. “They're a good team, we knew that before the game and we have to adjust to that.”

Adjustments, of course, would’ve been helpful, and perhaps would’ve led to a Boston goal had the game been longer than 60 minutes, but the idea that this is a ‘bad loss’ just strikes me as odd. Through three games, goaltender Tuukka Rask has been otherworldly. He’s made big stop after big stop, hasn’t allowed more than one goal in a game, and boasts the league’s fifth best save percentage through a week-plus, at a stellar .966 save percentage. As you can assume, that figure isn’t sustainable over the grind of an 82-game season, but it’s a strong (and then some) start.

The club’s second biggest question mark, the ragtag third line with Chris Kelly and youngsters Reilly Smith and Jordan Caron on the wings, looks to be firing on all cylinders, playing a strong and noteworthy game in all three zones.

Top line center David Krejci’s faceoff game is improving, and Bergeron looks to be nearing 100 percent following an offseason of multiple surgeries.

So, what are we waiting for?

The arrival of the Bruins’ two summer prizes, Loui Eriksson and Jarome Iginla.

Still without a goal or a point for that matter, the revamped right wing of the B’s top-six has been quiet through 180 minutes of play, and that’s perhaps expected, no? For Iginla, it’s all about learning the new system he’s jumped into, and gelling with linemates Krejci and Lucic. And perhaps most of it, it could be simply getting more ice-time as a complete unit. Whether it’s been through a fight or a 10-minute misconduct, it really feels as if we haven’t seen the Lucic-Krejci-Iginla line together enough to make a positive (or better yet, accurate) assessment of their effectiveness through three.

On line two, Eriksson’s clearly a skater still learning where to be when the Bruins’ most effective one-two punch, Bergeron and Brad Marchand, come flying down into the attacking zone. Through three, the best way to judge Eriksson is, uh, “wild.” Hint, hint: That’s not his game.

The chemistry? It needs some fine tuning (and then some).

“It’s getting there,” a frustrated Eriksson said after the loss. “We get some good chances today and it’s just a matter of putting the puck in and score some goals. Like I said, we have so many games left to play so yeah we’re just going to continue to work on it and get better.”

For Iginla and Eriksson, I remain absolutely hellbent on the idea that the points are going to start flying when they click with their linemates (or even switch places), and that the Bruins will be beyond dangerous when that does happen. Again, to me it’s not an ‘if’, but rather a ‘when’.

Later today, the Black-and-Gold will head to Columbus for an afternoon showdown with the Blue Jackets, yet another young-and-hungry team out to prove themselves as a legitimate threat in ‘13-14.

Off to a 2-1-0 start on the year, and winners of two straight, the Blue Jackets present the Bruins with a chance at vindicating what was a clear lack of preparation in their game against the Avs, and give talents like Iginla and Eriksson yet another chance to crack their egg and get on the board for the Bruins. And the thought of the latter of the two, undeniably, is more than enough to keep your worries at bay, at least for a little while.

Listen to Atlantic Buzz(with Red Wings blogger Mark Spizzirri and Bruins Ty Anderson) Recorded 10/13/13

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