The Boston Bruins took care of business against the New York Islanders for the second time in a week when they travelled to Long Island on Tuesday night and won in a shootout. It wasn't always pretty, as it took three different one-goal comebacks to get to the shootout, but Marat Khusnutdinov ended up being the hero with the tying goal late in the third and the shootout winner.
The first period featured some low-event hockey, with both teams entering the break scoreless. While it didn't make for the most exciting product on the ice, it was clear that the Islanders were struggling to figure out the Marco Sturm-led system that the Bruins were running. It finally looked like the Bruins were starting to figure it out this week, with their three-game winning streak, and the first period on Tuesday night was the best the system looked.
Casey Cizikas thoughts on Bruins should be music to fans ears
Casey Cizikas has been holding down the bottom six of the Islanders for a long time. He matched up against all the great Bruins teams of the past decade, including in 2021, when his Islanders won the series in six games. Nevertheless, this edition of the Bruins, with the way they play, seemed to frustrate him to no end in the first period.
"It's tough, they weren't doing anything crazy, but they were getting first to pucks in their own end, and they were just flipping it out and getting north with it," Cizikas told MSG during the first intermission report. "They made it difficult for us at times, but I think once we got on the forecheck and got to their defense, made it tough to break out, that's when we kind of evened the playing field a bit in that first period."
The Bruins entered the season ultra-prepared thanks to Sturm's successful training camp. They got the jump on the rest of the teams in the league, but they suffered a devastating losing streak when their opponents started to catch up. The Bruins were getting exposed with their new system, but Sturm was adamant that everyone had to let the next two months play out. It appears that the head coach knew what he was talking about, and some of their veteran opponents are realizing that this system for the Bruins might be a perfect match.
Sturm and the coaching staff would like to see some consistency. There isn't much point to alternate winning and losing streaks all year until they end up a .500 team in April. However, the last four games on the latest winning streak looked even better than the first streak to start the season, which shows plenty of progress and growth.