5 players to watch in Bruins vs. Islanders battle of struggling clubs
Much to the delight of at least one team (and complete dismay of the other), Thursday night’s Bruins vs. Islanders showdown at Boston’s TD Garden will produce a winner.
And for either team, it’ll be the first win banked away since returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off break, with the B’s coming into action on a 0-1-1 post-break record compared to New York’s 0-2-0 record. Actually, rewind back to before the break and both teams come into tonight’s contest on four-game winless skids, with the Black and Gold at 0-2-2 and the Isles at 0-4-0.
And yet, both teams still find themselves within moderate striking distance in the Eastern Conference playoff race. It’s obviously much better for the Bruins, who enter Thursday just two points behind the second wild card spot, but a win over the B’s on Thursday night would put the Isles just three points behind the Bruins and potentially five points behind 8th-place Columbus and with a game in hand.
This is the game of all games (thus far, anyway) for both teams.
Here’s five players to watch when the Bruins and Isles battle at TD Garden…
Pavel Zacha
While the bulk of the Bruins’ offensive attack has been carried by Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak of late, their center, Pavel Zacha, has struggled to find the back of the net. Of course, there’s only one puck and only one player can shoot it at a time, so you understand the ‘struggles’ to a certain degree, but nevertheless, Zacha enters Thursday’s game with just one goal in his last 12 games. Zacha’s been able to find points over that 12-game sample, of course, with six assists over that span, but finding the back of the net has been a challenge for Zacha this season after back-to-back 21-goal seasons.
Fortunately for Zacha, the matchup with New York is one that’s come with strong showings from Zacha, as he comes into Thursday’s contest with three goals and nine points in seven head-to-heads with the Islanders since joining the Bruins ahead of the 2022-23 season.
Riley Tufte
If Tuesday was Oliver Wahlstrom’s last chance to make something happen (and it turns out that it was), Thursday might come with a similar opportunity for the Bruins’ Riley Tufte. Slated to skate next to Matt Poitras and opposite right winger Justin Brazeau in a third-line role, Tufte will be given what should be an offense-friendly opportunity given his linemates, and one that he has not had in Boston to this point.
Tufte last played in last Saturday’s overtime loss to the Ducks, and finished with one hit and one block in 8:15 of time on ice, and has yet to record a point in his four appearances with Boston this season.
Nikita Zadorov
With Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy on the shelf, the Bruins are relatively short on offensive weapons from the backend. And while Mason Lohrei has done his part to by all means lead the blue line attack, the Bruins could use some secondary boosts from the backend. And this is where you come back to a guy like Nikita Zadorov. With just 14 points on the season, Zadorov obviously isn’t someone you’re looking at a 6-foot-6 Cale Makar, I know. But he’s still shown some signs of being able to make plays happen and hammering his shot on goal. And it helps that the Nov. 27 win over the Islanders was perhaps Zadorov’s best offensive showing of the season, with a goal and an assist in the win.
Bo Horvat
The Islanders’ Bo Horvat has been on a heater since the calendar flipped to 2025. And the results have typically followed, with the Islanders holding a 6-1-0 record in 2025 in games that’ve come with at least one goal from Horvat. And Horvat started that run against the Bruins, with two goals (including the overtime game winner) in New York’s overtime win over the Bruins at TD Garden back on Jan. 5.
Overall, the 29-year-old Horvat has nine goals and 14 points in 19 games since Jan. 1, and comes into tonight’s contest with 10 goals and 21 points in 21 career games against the B’s.
Kyle Palmieri
Islanders winger Kyle Palmieri may no longer be the player that tormented the Bruins back in 2021, and he might not even be the player who scored 30 goals a season ago, but Palmieri is still a player who can get it done, and has done exactly that against the B’s.
In February alone, Palmieri has been an effective scorer for New York, with four goals and an assist in seven games played, and has three goals and an assist in his last four games overall. And if we go back to the last three seasons, Palmieri has scored four goals in six meetings against the Bruins.
