New York Islanders play host to the Boston Bruins
The first game of Thursday will be hosted by the New York Islanders as they play host to the Boston Bruins. This will be the second of the four games scheduled to take place between the two sides. The last time these two teams met, Bruins were in hot form
as they emerged as 5-2 winners of the game with Michael Ryder scoring the winning goal.
Things have been heating up in the Northeast Division as the Bruins with some disappointing results on their road trip have lost the lead up front. Montreal Canadiens with consistent results have levelled themselves on points with the Bruins and are in good
shape to take the lead. The last game was the turning point in the Division as the Bruins lost their game to the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 while the Canadiens grabbed a point in their shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Bruins are definitely the stronger of the two teams ahead of this game as Islanders aren’t much changed from the last time. The last time they faced the Bruins they lost 20 out of their 21 games. Four games winning streak is all the Islanders could best
achieve during the course of the current season. Though recently, the Islanders have tasted a lot of success and managed to establish the longest winning streak in the season but they are in no position of making it to the play-offs.
However, this time they have improved from the last time winning against some big teams like Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens. The 4-3 win against the Ottawa Senators in the last game this Tuesday saw them win after a tight game in shootout. Commenting
on the win Kyle Okposo said:
"That's another big step for us because we did not have our best game and we found a way to get two points," forward Kyle Okposo said.
Both teams have played 57 games during the course of the season out of which Islanders have won 21 games in regulation time, 7 games in overtime and scored 49 points. On the other hand, Bruins have won 31 games in regulation time, 7 games in overtime and
scored 69 points.
The Bruins on the other hand were very strong until recently when they have started to face a slump of wins. The Bruins were in good position to win the game against the Maple Leafs this Tuesday as they led 3-2.
However, they defence proved to be weak and in the end Maple Leafs scored twice to emerge as 4-3 winners of the game.
"I think it's important to take a step back and look at what we need to rectify," Coach Claude Julien said. "Obviously, we have quite a few games coming up and haven't had the opportunity to practice as well as we have."
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