The Boston Bruins had a very slow start against the New York Rangers Wednesday night, but quickly bounced back with six minutes to go taking a 2-1 lead after the first period. But, then the second period struggles haunted the Black and Gold yet again. The Blue Shirts regained the lead 3-2 and the result stood up.

Claude Julien’s bunch will face the New York Islanders for the second time in nine days. Reilly Smith and the B’s took care of business in Long Island on January 29th by a score of 5-2 behind Smith’s three-point night.

The Islanders have fell into the number four seed as they compiled a 6-4-0 record in their last 10 games. The B’s have built a five point lead over the ninth seeded Florida Panthers.

TD Garden has been good to the Black and Gold this season where they hold a 16-7-4 record while the visiting Islanders own a 16-11-1 record while on the road.

In injury news, the Islanders will be without Kyle Okposo who reportedly has a detached retina.

Here is your complete Bruins/Islanders preview:

Gametime: 7:00 PM
Records: 27-17-7 (61 points)/Islanders 33-17-1 (67 points)
TV/Radio: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Location: TD Garden

Bruins’ projected lines:

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Reilly Smith
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Loui Eriksson
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-David Pastrnak
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Craig Cunningham

Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg-Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug-Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask
Malcolm Subban

Islanders’ projected lines:

Anders Lee-John Tavares-Josh Bailey
Mikhail Grabovski-Frans Nielsen-Ryan Strome
Michael Grabner-Brock Nelson-Nikolay Kulemin
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck

Nick Leddy-Johnny Boychuk
Calvin de Haan-Travis Hamonic
Thomas Hickey-Brian Strait

Chad Johnson
Jaroslav Halak

Who to watch for Bruins: Milan Lucic

Lucic has two goals and two assists this season against the New York Islanders in two games. The left-winger also has two goals and two assists to go along with a plus-3 rating in his last three games while averaging around 17 minutes of ice time.

The 26 year-old has been on a tear over his last 11 games accumulating 11 points including five goals and six assists. He suddenly has 11 goals and 18 assists on the season (29 points) only trailing team leader Patrice Bergeron by five (34).

It seems as if Lucic has been playing with that edge everyone wanted him to play with from the beginning of the season, but make no doubt about it, Lucic looks like a different player in February.

Who to watch for Islanders: John Tavares

With Kyle Okposo out, Tavares will need to handle more of the load. We keep bringing up his name, but he is that good. In two games this season against Julien’s team, Tavares has one goal and two assists.

The 24 year-old has 23 goals on the year which ranks him eighth in the NHL while his 10 power-play goals and five game-winning goals rank him fifth.

In 20 career games against the Black and Gold, the speedy Tavares has nine goals and 11 assists. His speed may be the part of his game that poses the biggest problem. We saw Wednesday night how the speed of the New York Rangers gave the entire B’s defense fits. Julien needs to have a better plan to contain Tavares and his speed.

Game Day Edge: Don’t look ahead to Sunday

The B’s know they have two games in two nights and they also know who is on the back end-the Montreal Canadiens. The Black and Gold cannot look ahead and shift their focus to Sunday at all.

Julien and the B’s need to focus on the task at hand and that is a very good Islanders team. Even though they beat the Isles 5-2 nine days ago, it’s a new night.

The Black and Gold will have to start fast as they did in Long Island and never look back. This is a tough stretch for the B’s and with four points in the balance over the weekend, this has to be a win Saturday night considering their lack of success against the Habs.