The Bruins will return back to the TD Garden on Friday night to face the New York Islanders. The Bruins come in as the number one seed in the Eastern Conference with a 2-0-1 record while the Islanders will come in at 2-1-0.

The B’s are coming off a tough overtime loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday, but the team showed great fight in coming back from a two-goal deficit and a one-goal deficit late in the game to force overtime at Madison Square Garden. From the other side, the Islanders had a nice come from behind win on Thursday night to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs and will enter Boston with the same number of wins as the B’s (two).

Head Coach Claude Julien is hopeful that defenseman Dennis Seidenberg will return to the lineup after missing Monday and Wednesday’s game. Seidenberg reiterated that he is taking things slow due to the short compacted season.

“Well, you have to be cautious- I mean, it’s a short season with a lot of games in a short period of time, so you have to be smart about your little problems that you have going on and that’s what we’re doing right now,” Seidenberg said. “Just being cautious and hopefully I’m ready to go soon.”

After the jump more storylines, line projections, linkage and tweets of interest

Gametime: 7:00 p.m.

T.V./Radio: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Location: TD Garden, Boston

Records: Bruins (2-0-1, 5 points), Islanders (2-1-0, 4 points)

Bruins projected lines

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin

Chris Bourque-Chris Kelly- Rich Peverley

Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton

 

Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk

Dougie Hamilton-Dennis Seidenberg

Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask

Anton Khudobin

 

Islanders projected lines

Matt Moulson-John Tavares-Kyle Okposo

Michael Grabner-Frans Nielsen-Brad Boys

David Ullstrom-Keith Aucoin-Colin McDonald

Matt Martin-Marty Reasoner-Casey Cizikas

 

Mark Streit-Brian Strait

Andrew MacDonald-Travis Hamonic

Joe Finley-Matt Carkner

 

Rick DiPietro

Evgeni Nabokov

Bruins to watch

It has only been three games, but Tyler Seguin has yet to light the lamp so look for Seguin to get going against the New York Islanders. It is only a matter of time before Seguin starts to score in bunches. Although Seguin only has one assist on the year, he is a plus three while on the ice which will take off once he starts to get going individually.

Also, look to see if Tuukka Rask will get a fourth start in a row. Anton Khudobin may get the nod and spell Rask for this one, but if Rask does start, look to see how he rebounds after a loss and playing three straight games.

Islanders to watch

Keep your eyes on John Tavares. This guy has a knack for the back of the net. In his first three years in the league Tavares has tallied 84 goals while dishing out 118 assists. That is good for 202 points. Not too shabby. Tavares has four assists on the young season and has yet to light the lamp so be careful of his ability.

Bruins linkage

According to Joe McDonald of ESPN Boston, Dennis Seidenberg will be a game time decision tonight

Days Of Y’orr preview tonight’s tilt with the Islanders.

Bruins legend Ray Bourque is impressed with rookie Dougie Hamilton. (ESPN Boston)

Mike Loftus of the Patriot Ledger touches on how certain Bruins are scoring goals at a surprisingly consistent rate

Islanders linkage

Lighthouse hockey takes a look at last night’s wild Islanders win over the Maple Leafs.

A preview of tonight’s game from the Islanders persepctive. (Islanderspointblank.com)