Game Day Thread: Islanders @ Bruins

Good evening. The Bruins are at home, hosting the New York Islanders for the 2nd night of a back-to-back.

Last time in Bruins Hockey…

The Bruins were hosting the Isles, at the TD Garden.
Bruins win, 4-1.

Yes, the Bruins actually beat these guys – due in no small part to Taylor Hall and the suddenly effective 2nd line. Props to recent scoring master Craig Smith!

The Bruins are now at 23-12-6 which still has them at 4th in the MassMutual East division by victory points, 8 points behind the Caps and 6 behind the Isles.
They are also 4th in the division via points percentage with a total of .634.

What will be the lines today?

Well we’ve got some new players, so coach Bruce Cassidy has some new lines.

The Injury Report: Ondrej Kaše is skating, Halak is still on COVID quarantine. Brandon Carlo is out, week-to-week, with a different upper-body injury. Matt Grzelcyk is still out with an upper body injury. Kevan Miller seems to have a new problem unrelated to his knee. He’ll be out.

The new guys all played on Tuesday and Thursday.
Left wing Taylor Hall plays on David Krejci’s left, wearing number 71. Defenseman Mike Reilly was practicing paired with Steven Kampfer. He has chosen the unheralded Bruins jersey number 6.
Jarred Tinordi is out, with Jakub Zboril in his place. Jack Ahcan has been practicing with the big club, but I wouldn’t expect him tonight, had Miller not called out. Still expecting the Zboril Kampfer pairing that I love so much, because they never get in over their heads, trapped in their own defensive zone and start making mistakes.

Trent Frederic is back on the taxi squad.

Tuukka Rask was in net last night, on his first night back in a couple of weeks. He gets tonight off entirely. Jaroslav Halak remains out. Jeremy Swayman is in goal tonight. Dan Vladař is backup.

Bruins Forward Lines
Brad Marchand	Patrice Bergeron	David Pastrnak
#71 Taylor Hall	David Krejci	Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie	Charlie Coyle	Jake DeBrusk
Sean Kuraly	#6 Curtis Lazar	Chris Wagner
Bruins Defensive pairs
Jeremy Lauzon	Charlie McAvoy
Jakub Zboril	Steven Kampfer
#6 Mike Reilly	Connor Clifton
Bruins Goaltending
#1 Jeremy Swayman	(#80 Dan Vladař)

Tonight’s opponent are the New York Islanders. This will be the 6th meeting between these teams this season, 4 of which were at Nassau, and 3 of those were Bruins regulation losses, the 4th a shoot-out loss, and the 5th was an overtime home loss. The Isles are near the the top of the division at 27-12-4 with a points percentage of .690.
The Isles are missing an injured Anders Lee (out for the season), yet have still stayed perched atop the division. Winger Ross Johnston is also out with an undisclosed injury. They are 5-2-0 in their last seven games.
At the trade deadline, they acquired Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac and Brayden Coburn, without losing NHL-level player assets. They seem particularly well suited to beat the Bruins. Isn’t that great.
(h/t Daily Faceoff):

Islanders Forwards
#14 Travis Zajac — #13 Mathew Barzal — #7 Jordan Eberle
#18 Anthony Beauvillier — #29 Brock Nelson — #12 Josh Bailey
#21 Kyle Palmieri — #44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau — #26 Oliver Wahlstrom
#47 Leo Komarov — #53 Casey Cizikas — #17 Matt Martin

Islanders Defense
#3 Adam Pelech — #6 Ryan Pulock
#2 Nick Leddy — #24 Scott Mayfield
#8 Noah Dobson — #4 Andy Greene

Islanders Goaltending
#30 Ilya Sorokin
(#40 Semyon Varlamov)

Officiating
Bruins vs. Capitals
Referees: #17 Frederick L’Ecuyer — #22 Ghislain Hebert
Linesmen: #97 Kory Nagy — #83 Matt MacPherson
(as usual, h/t Scouting the Refs)