clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Bruins vs. Islanders 3/19/19 PREVIEW: Ten games left!

The Regular season is officially in the ten count. Let’s go to...Nassau?

By SkyonAir
NHL: New York Islanders at Boston Bruins Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Just the Facts:

The Time: 7pm EST

The Place: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum...I guess.

Place to Watch: NESN, SportsNet-East, Sportsnet-Ontario, MSG+

Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub, 88.7fm WRHU

Opposing SBNation Blog: The long-suffering Lighthouse Hockey

Know Your Enemy:

  • Anders Lee is your lead goal-getter for the Islanders, with 27 in 72 games. He also has the most power play goals with the Isle, with 9.
  • Mat Barzal. 58 points in 72 games. Leader of the team, Don Sweeney’s draft record, yadda yadda yadda...you know how this goes.
  • Johnny Boychuk is here!
  • Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss are in the same boat as Rask and Halak in being both the first goaltender. Both are around .927 SV%

Preview:

The Islanders are a tight team, thanks to Barry Trotz. They play extremely strict, regimented hockey that prefers the game to be between one goal at most when it’s at it’s best. No thanks to that vaunted Barzal fella, who genuinely looks like a transformative player for the Isle. Granted, when it’s off...one of the most transformative centers in the league can only watch in agony as the rest of the team around him looks every bit like the cobbled together group of parts and Paleoproterozoic fossils they are. It’s a tight ship that can spring some pretty nasty leaks if you can get under Robin Lehner’s skin.

But who cares about that team that plays in an overturned tupperware container, PASTA MIGHT BE BACK, BABY! MoJo, DeBrusk and Kevan are inching ever closer to health! The Bruins just have to get through this one without getting anyone else hurt, and they might have two lines that don’t look like they were cobbled together in haste in NHL19!

In seriousness, this will be a good test for the B’s, as their last game against Long Island was a tough 3-1 game in which no scoring happened until 22 minutes in, and the Islanders kept it close and kinda controlled the shots-for until Peter Cehlarik did a good and then Patrice Bergeron put it out of the Islander’s reach. A win here continues to put the Bruins slightly ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs in and hopefully get them closer to clinching a playoff spot! Which seems like something that should’ve happened already, but this is the 2018-19 season, and very little has to make sense on the surface.

So let’s get ready for another real fun, close game! I’m sure no blood pressure spikes will come of this one!