Barry Trotz checked himself, remembering he had just called the Bruins a "straight-line team." Perhaps the Islanders coach did have a theory why Jean-Gabriel Pageau has had success against them this season.
"Everybody has that team that you seem to have good luck against," Trotz said after Wednesday’s practice at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow. "But he plays hard and he plays a north-south game and maybe it’s as simple as that. The Bruins play a north-south game, they’re hard to go through. They’re on the right side of pucks and you have to battle for those inches.