Islanders Try To Even Series vs Bruins in Game 4

The New York Islanders will try to avoid a second consecutive home loss against the Boston Bruins as small home underdogs in Game 4 of their East Division second-round playoff series on Saturday. The Islanders fell 2-1 to the Bruins in overtime as +130 home dogs on Thursday, and they have not lost two straight at Nassau Coliseum since April 24.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

The public continues to be all over Boston in this series, moving the No. 3 seed to -148 as of Friday in early betting action, and that will probably only continue to rise. New York lost a tough one on Thursday in Game 3 after Mathew Barzal tied it up at 1-1 with a little more than five minutes remaining in regulation time only to see Brad Marchand come through with the game-winning goal 3:36 into OT.

It is hard to recover from that kind of loss mentally, but the Islanders do have the luxury of playing in front of another packed house here in Game 4. That said, the Bruins have yet to be underdogs in any game this postseason and likely will not be until at least the next round assuming they advance.

Boston News & Notes

Boston has proven to be mighty resilient in these playoffs to date, dropping just two games by one goal apiece and fighting back whenever challenged so far. The backbone of the Bruins has obviously been goaltender Tuukka Rask, who bounced back from his worst performance of the playoffs with one of his best, going from surrendering four goals in an OT loss in Game 2 to stopping 28-of-29 shots in Game 3.

New York plays a physical brand of hockey and will not lay down in this spot, especially at home, which means Rask will need to be up to the task in what could be his most difficult challenge of the series.

New York News & Notes

The Islanders lost a similar Game 3 to the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-4 in the first round before turning in their best effort in Game 4, which jump-started them toward three consecutive wins and a series victory. New York found a way to tie Game 3 late on Barzal’s goal but hung in there defensively thanks to the strong play between the pipes from goalie Semyon Varlamov, who made 39 saves and came up just short of earning his second win in a row.

Offensively, the Islanders need to do better though like they did versus the Penguins when they won 4-1 in Game 4 exactly two weeks ago. Hopefully for them, Barzal is just getting started, but they need others like Josh Bailey and Brock Nelson to step up too.