When the Boston Bruins look in the mirror, they see the New York Islanders.
āWeāre playing ourselves a little bit,ā Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said of the Bruins' second-round opponent in the playoffs. āThey have a lot of our attributes: They want to be structured, they want to play with discipline, they have good goaltending.ā
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The same goes for the Islanders, who will open their best-of-7 series in Boston on Saturday night. The Bruins may have a slight edge with home-ice advantage and a little more firepower, but players and coaches on either side expect the East Division series to be a grind.
āWeāre straight-line hockey teams," Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield said. āItās two similar hockey teams, and itās going to be a battle.ā
Half of these teams' regular-season meetings were one-goal games, which fits the tightness of playoff hockey, particularly this year. Three of Boston's and four of New York's first-round games were also decided by a goal.
As Islanders coach Barry Trotz likes to say, these teams are ācomfortable being uncomfortable" in close games and figure on more of them coming up soon.
āWe saw that in the season series: a lot of tight games except maybe one or two," Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron said. "It was really tight-checking, structured hockey and I think thatās what we're expecting.ā
GOALTENDING BATTLE
Boston's net belongs to Tuukka Rask, who stopped 159 of 169 shots against Washington in the first round. The 2014 Vezina Trophy winner as the league's top goaltender is looking to backstop the Bruins to a third Cup final in six years.
Rookie Ilya Sorokin made his NHL playoff debut in Game 1 of the first round against Pittsburgh because veteran Semyon Varlamov was injured. Sorokin got the net back in Game 4 with the Islanders trailing in the series and was their best player against the Penguins.
āThey had to go their Plan B and he won them all four games, so it doesnāt matter who they put there: Theyāre going to get good goaltending,ā Cassidy said. āIf youāre going to advance, itās very difficult to do if your goaltender is not one of your best players. Thatās what happened with us clearly in the Washington series, happened for them against Pittsburgh, so thatās the other part of their game thatās rock solid right now.ā
LINE 'EM UP
The Bruins' āPerfection Lineā of Brad Marchand, Bergeron and David Pastrnak will be the Islanders' focus. It might be New York's fourth line of Matt Martin, Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas that Boston has to worry about.
Bruins defenseman Mike Reilly believes the key is moving the puck quick against those big forwards.
āTheyāre not going to be able to be faster than the puck,ā Reilly said. āIf we can just try to keep the puck going that, I think weāll be successful. Obviously those guys are as physical as any line in the league, so weāre definitely prepared for that.ā
The Islanders understand they have to be on their toes against Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak, who are averaging a goal a game just at even strength.
āThat top line can do a little bit of everything,ā Mayfield said. āThe biggest thing for me is theyāre never out of a play, so Iām never out of a play. You canāt take a second off.ā
TALE OF TWO STREAKS
The Islanders won the first five meetings and the Bruins the final three this season. No one quite knows what to make of that, other than the Bruins adding Reilly and forwards Taylor Hall and Curtis Lazar at the trade deadline and being healthier later in the year.
āI donāt want to judge us on the start of the year against them,ā Cassidy said. āI donāt know how theyāre judging themselves against us from the end of the year when we had more success. To me, itās a fresh start for both teams. Both teams are playing well.ā
BARZAL BUMP
Islanders star Mathew Barzal has 14 points in 17 career games against Boston ā seven points in eight games this season. What is it about the Bruins that brings out the best in Barzal?
āWhen you play the Boston Bruins, you know that you have to bring your highest compete level, or else youāre going to stick out like a sore thumb out there,ā he said. āMaybe thatās it. I think itās just an intense game, and I know Iāve got to be on top of my game or else youāre going to stick out and itās not going to be good.ā
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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