Ty Anderson: The Bruins identity is their goaltending

Ty Anderson joined Felger and Mazz on Thursday to discuss the Boston Bruins and their current goaltending situation. While on, Ty gave his reasoning as to why he would keep both Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark in Boston this season.

Ty says he wouldn't trade Ullmark for the hypothetical trade that was floated out on twitter (or X) the other day...

Ty Anderson: Okay, so the Bruins identity is their goaltending. During the Bergeron-Krejci era we weren't going, "you got to trade one of them you can't have both". This is their identity. Their goaltending is their identity. And this whole thing started because there was a fan proposal online that said, "Would you do this trade: And it was the Bruins would get Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and a second round pick and the Oilers would get Linus Ullmark". No, I wouldn't do that. No one should do that. That's a bad trade. You know who wants that trade? The Oilers. Nobody else should want that trade.

Felger: Why?

Ty Anderson: Because Nugent-Hopkins is not that good. Take him away from McDavid and his numbers go right in the tank. It kind of helps you play with the best player in the world. And then B) if you're trading Linus Ullmark, you need a first round pick. You need a first round pick plus! There's no reason to trade one of these guys right now. Like, there's this idea that you have to get rid of them. You don't. You absolutely don't. Especially not this year. This is the year I wouldn't get rid of Linus Ullmark at all.

Mazz: Ty, do you think that they looked to do it during the off-season?

Ty Anderson: I think they explored the possibility but it never materialized into a deal that was A) fair value or B) was actually able to be made for one reason or another: Moving parts of other teams. Linus's no trade. He has a 16 team no trade, so it's half the league that he can't go to essentially.

Felger: If you're holding out for a better offer, I get it. That's fine with me. You don't have to trade him today just to trade him. And if you think that if you play the long game, you'll get more in return? Great. Go ahead. But Ty, post deadline, into the postseason, you'd rather have these two goalies than another top six forward?

Ty Anderson: Yes. Yes, I would.

Felger: Why?

Ty Anderson: Because you're going to have to win games ugly. Like, look at the way this team plays. I would have to imagine they are tied up near the top of the league.....

Felger: So, you understand you can only play one goalie at a time...

Ty Anderson: Yeah. I think they going to play both, though. I think they're going to rotate in the playoffs. I firmly believe they're going to do that. The tenor around them not doing that was so strong that I think they're going to do it this year.

Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!

After a two-game trek with stops in Dallas and Detroit, the Bruins will find themselves back in the comfortable confines of TD Garden when the Islanders come to town Thursday night.

And while it may not come with the same energy as the Atlantic-best vs. Central-best thriller we were treated to when the Bruins skated against the Stars on Monday, there's no denying that the Bruins will have a significant challenge on their hands when the Islanders come to town.

“They're playing a lot more aggressively offensively, which I think has made them better offensively,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “They're giving up a little bit more, but they're still a really good defensive team.”

On a health front, the Bruins will be without Morgan Geekie (and four other lineup regulars), but the team does hope to get defenseman Derek Forbort back in action after missing the last three games with an injury.

Islanders center Bo Horvat, meanwhile, will be a game-time decision for the club. Horvat has scored four goals and nine points through 10 games with the Islanders this season.

Here's four players to watch for when the Bruins and Isles get underway at TD Garden tonight...

Bruins winger Jake DeBrusk finally breaking through with a goal last week did not come with the avalanche many expected given his career tendencies. DeBrusk did have an assist and five shots on goal in the outing after his first goal of the season, but did not find the back of the net in either Detroit or Dallas, and comes into tonight's game with just one goal and five points through 12 games this season.

But, the good news: DeBrusk is going against a team he's torched in recent years, as DeBrusk takes to the ice tonight with four goals and six points in five meetings against the Islanders since the start of the 2021-22 year.

DeBrusk is also playing on a line that has some definite potential to do some damage, with No. 74 slated to skate to the right of Danton Heinen and Matt Poitras on Boston's third line.

Monday night in Dallas saw what was a six-game point streak come to an end for the Bruins' Pavel Zacha.

Zacha did make an impact elsewhere (he won 13 of his 18 faceoffs in the gritty victory), but now comes getting back on the board, and against a team with some high-quality centermen.

Home ice has been kind to Zacha out of the gate this season, with three goals and five points in six games at TD Garden this season. And Zacha had considerable success against New York in his first year as a Bruin, too, with one goal and four points in three meetings with the Isles.

With Charlie McAvoy's suspension upheld by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Bruins defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is going to get one more game — for now, anyway — running Boston's top power-play unit.

And this is a primo matchup for him based on his career figures, as the New York native comes into action with six goals and 20 points in 22 career head-to-heads with the Islanders.

It'll also be interesting to see how the veteran Shattenkirk responds after Montgomery and the Bruins by all means decreased his usage in a tight finish against the Stars, with Shattenkirk deployed for just 15:11 after three straight games of over 20 minutes.

Jumping into the wayback machine, Kyle Palmieri's move from the Western Conference's Anaheim Ducks to the Eastern Conference between the Devils and Islanders has been a downright devastating move for the Bruins.

In fact, since then, Palmieri has 10 goals and 14 points in 25 games against the Bruins. That makes him one of just 12 players in the NHL to score double-digit goals against the Bruins over that span. (Mika Zibanejad is the top B's killer on that front, in case you're curious, with 13 goals against the Bruins since 2015.)

Palmieri has three goals and eight points through 11 games this season, and comes into tonight's game riding a four-game goalless stretch and has just one goal in his last six outings.