Islanders: 3 Bruins To Watch For In Upcoming Series

Starting on Saturday, the New York Islanders have a very tough series coming up against the Boston Bruins. During the regular season, the Islanders had some success going 5-2-1 against Boston but as we know, throw the regular season out the window.

There’s a reason why this team has made the playoffs 12 of the last 14 years. They’re extremely well run and they usually tend to go fairly far in the playoffs.

It’s not going to be an easy task but if the Islanders are going to win the series they’re going to have to watch for these three players.

Tukka Rask

I genuinely don’t understand the Bruins fans who criticize Tukka. He’s so good and especially when it comes to the playoffs. In the series against Washington, he had a .941 save percentage and a 1.81 goals against average.

Over the course of his career in the playoffs, in 98 career starts he has a .927 save percentage and a 2.18 goals against average.

Against the Isles, Rask has been excellent. He has a 19-7-1 record with a .936 save percentage and a 1.88 goals against average. They won’t be able to play the same way that they did against Pittsburgh and win.

There’s no Tristan Jarry in this series, the Bruins have a legit star in net so the Isles will need to win some low-scoring games here.

Taylor Hall

Since becoming a Boston Bruin, Taylor Hall has been unreal. He had 14 points and eight goals in 16 regular season games. If you include the series against Washington, he has 17 points and 10 goals in 21 games.

One of the Bruins issues was the depth after the feared top unit. He has sparked that second line and helped spark David Krejci to begin to produce more.

In his career, Hall has been excellent against the Islanders. In 27 games during the regular season, he has 24 points and 14 goals to his name. Expect him to be a huge piece in this series for Boston.

David Pastrnak

You can pick just about anyone on this Bruins top line but David Pastrnak is just built differently. In 48 games this year he had 20 goals and was at a point per game and that’s off a Richard Trophy the year prior.

It’s been a solid start to his playoff career as well over the past five years. In 57 games, he has 59 points and 22 goals to his name.

Go figure, just like the first two players I mentioned, Pastrnak is an Islander killed. He has 19 points (6 goals, 13 assists) in 22 career games.

Yes, the Islanders have a chance in this series, we’ve seen them play well against Boston this year. But it won’t be easy. Expect a long, grueling series between these two teams.