Today on Bruins Daily

Tonight, the Bruins begin their first of three games on their California trip when they pay visit to Teemu Selanne, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and the rest of the Pacific Division leading Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center. The Bruins won the first meeting back on Halloween night in a shootout and will look to sweep the season series from Anaheim. Of course, we’ll have you covered on Twitter throughout tonights game at @BruinsDaily and be sure to interact with us by including #DailyLive in your tweets.

In case you missed it

With his bounce back performance against the Winnipeg Jets, Chris Chirichiello gave player of the week honors to rookie defenseman Torey Krug.

Your’s truly chimes in on Claude Julien’s successful system after coaching his 500th game with the Black and Gold on Boston.com.

Anthony Travalgia posts on the five Bruins who made their respective Olympic squads.

Bruins Daily is on Instagram. Be sure to follow us at @BruinsDaily.

And here’s postgame video from the B’s 4-1 win over the Jets on Saturday:

Know the enemy

When the Ducks finally traded Bobby Ryan in the off-season, many hockey pundits wrote them off as a serious threat to stay atop the Western Conference. Well, looks like those pundits, including your’s truly, were wrong.

Anaheim currently possesses the best record in the NHL with 67 points – tied with Chicago with a game in hand – in 44 games. Getzlaf and Perry continue to light it up in Anaheim, while Selanne is still productive at his age and the team is getting secondary scoring from Nick Bonino, Dustin Penner and Andrew Cogliano, just to name a few. Even though they’ve fought the injury bug defensively, Cam Fowler has been a pretty steady force on the blue-line with 26 points (4 goals, 22 assists) and a plus-14, and the Ducks have also gotten great goaltending from Jonas Hiller, who has not lost in regulation in over a month.

Undoubtedly, the Bruins will want to start this trip off on a high note, and a win over the top team in the league would be one helluva start in this three-game stretch.

Bruins’ linkage

There’s no denying that this California trip will be one heck of a challenge for the Black and Gold as they face the top three teams in the Pacific. (Joe McDonald/ESPN Boston)

Not only did he coach his team to a victory in his 500th game, Julien made some headwaves afterwards when he claimed that Shawn Thornton “has to earn his spot” in the lineup when he returns from his 15-game suspension. He may have said that jokingly, but a message has been sent as decisions loom as Thornton is closer to his return. (Joe Haggerty/CSNNE)

Greg Ezell gives his congrats to the five Bruins who made the Olympics the only way he can. (Days of Y’Orr)

League linkage

Some interesting statistics of Team Canada’s 2014 team. (CBC)

Krug, Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby are just a few names on Nick Costonika’s mid-season award list. (Yahoo)

Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp is setting the standard in your fantasy hockey league. (Matt Cubeta/NHL.com)

Bruins’ projected lines:

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Carl Soderberg-Ryan Spooner-Matt Fraser
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Justin Florek

Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Matt Bartkowski-Dougie Hamilton
Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson

Ducks’ projected lines:

Dustin Penner-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry
Kyle Palmieri-Matthieu Perrault-Teemu Selanne
Jakob Silfverberg-Saku Koivu-Andrew Cogliano
Matt Beleskey-Nick Bonino-Daniel Winnik

Francois Beauchemin-Hampus Lindholm
Cam Fowler-Ben Lovejoy
Sami Vatanen-Bryan Allen

Jonas Hiller
Frederik Andersen

Tweets of interest:

With the midseason upon us, we asked you to tweet us your grade for the Bruins at the midway point and why. Here are the best responses…

@BruinsDaily A- #Bruins are playing awesome so far. Dealing well with injuries. Need to clean up the end of period goals against

— Eskimoflow (@eskimoflow) January 7, 2014

@BruinsDaily A- Done amazing with all the guys hurt and call ups. Should have won a few more games but overall can’t complain

— Nate Gilbert (@nategilbert) January 7, 2014

 

@BruinsDaily @_TimRosenthal B+ They have battled relentless injuries & have done remarkably well. The 60 min effort isn’t there yet though.

— Carol B Brown (@bartley16) January 6, 2014

@BruinsDaily B despite injuries have stayed near the top of the conference. A little inconsistent. Clearly not close to their A game

— k e s (@blackandgold207) January 6, 2014

For something completely different…

Jeopardy! host and Canada’s own Alex Trebek rapped to a few lyrics in the latest edition of the game show phenomena. No wonder why the announcement of the Canadian Olympic team was delayed today (okay, not really).