Islanders Look to Steal Game 1 as Underdogs at Bruins

The New York Islanders will go for their fourth consecutive victory, though, they are road underdogs on Saturday when they visit the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of their East Division second-round playoff series. The fourth-seeded Islanders won two of three games as dogs away from home against the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round while the Bruins took out the second-seeded Washington Capitals in five games after taking the last four.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

Boston has been bet up big for the series opener, going from -155 to -187 at some sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark, which is not very surprising considering they are such a public team. How high will the Bruins end up going though? They were expected to be the team to beat in the East Division during the regular season and could be viewed as late bloomers who are right where they were supposed to be after knocking out the Capitals.

On the other hand, New York won three in a row to close out Pittsburgh, with rookie goaltender Ilya Sorokin still unbeaten this postseason at 4-0 with a 2.25 goals against average and .943 save percentage. The total may be have opened a bit high at 5.5 considering Sorokin and Boston counterpart, Tuukka Rask, are two great goalies capable of shutting down the opposition at any time. But a low-scoring series opener could change that moving forward, so it will be interesting to see how many goals are tallied here.

New York News & Notes

Sorokin was really the story for the Islanders in the first round, as he proved to be unbeatable despite not posting a shutout in four starts. However, his save percentage in each game was good, and he turned away 34 shots or more in three of the games, with two of them going to overtime. However, equally important was the offensive support he got in his starts, as the Islanders scored four goals or more three times as well.

But will that continue versus the Bruins, who allowed two goals or fewer in their last three games? Rask seemed to get stronger as his team’s series with Washington went on, so the key to this one may be whether or not New York can get off to a fast start and rattle him early.

Boston News & Notes

Boston was one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup less than a year ago in the bubble before Rask left the team amidst COVID-19 concerns. Now, he is back at the top of his game, making the Bruins one of the most dangerous clubs remaining. Offensively, new addition Taylor Hall has also given them a scoring boost with two goals and one assist so far.

Only Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand have more goals than him on the team with three apiece, and that balanced scoring will be difficult for opponents to stop. On any given night, Hall, Bergeron, Marchand or David Pastrnak are capable of stepping up.