It will take perfection for Islanders to stop the Perfection Line

On paper, the Bruins looked to be a formidable obstacle on the Islanders’ road back to the NHL final four. On the ice, they looked like a roadblock.

The Islanders are an experienced, well-coached team that will not fold in the face of one tough day at the office, but the Bruins’ 5-2 victory Saturday night in Game 1 of a second-round playoff series illustrated what a tough task this will be.

Afterward, the visitors did their best to put a relatively positive spin on what occurred — taking issue in particular with what they considered a misleading discrepancy in shots on goal — but they did not look like the better team.

And they did not look like they were the team with the better No. 1 line. Not even close.

Boston’s "Perfection Line" lived up to its hype and more, led by David Pastrnak’s hat trick. But their most eye-opening statistic was this one: Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand combined for 19 shots on goal. Nineteen!

The Islanders had 22 as a team, and their sputtering top line of Leo Komarov, Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle totaled three.

Barry Trotz said he thought his first line was "OK," but he did not rule out changes in advance of Game 2 on Monday.

The Islanders seemed mildly annoyed when reminded by reporters of the Bruins’ shots-on-goal edge, but they did not deny they must improve.

"They’re a volume-shooting team," defenseman Andy Greene said. "They shoot from a lot of bad angles to try to create havoc and traffic in front there. But at the same time, it’s probably something we can do a little bit better."

Greene said Pastrnak found "a little soft area" in which he likes to operate. He scored one easy goal off a juicy rebound and two beauties on which he showed admirable patience before firing the puck past Ilya Sorokin.

"We just have to make sure we’re aware over there and just try to limit his opportunities," Greene said. "Not just him but the whole line."

Defending the "Perfection Line" does not require perfection, but it will require far more than what the Islanders accomplished in Game 1.

Sorokin had another strong game in goal, but he gave up too many rebounds, and on several occasions lost track of where the puck was after saves. He figures to get the start in Game 2, and should.

As for Pastrnak and friends, the Islanders must give them far less room to operate.

"We’ve got to challenge them a little bit more," Trotz said. "We backed off . . . We have to tighten up there."

The Islanders are a defense-first team, but to win this series they might have to match the Bruins’ scoring. With the top line getting little done, that might fall to Brock Nelson’s line centering Josh Bailey and Anthony Beauvillier.

Beauvillier, who has been hot of late, was the only Islanders forward to score Saturday night, doing so on a power play when he tipped in Noah Dobson’s shot.

"They obviously have a lot of firepower up front," Beauvillier said. "It’s got to be our job to defend better and obviously create more offense."

The Bruins presumably got a jolt from the biggest NHL crowd in 444 days — 17,400 strong at TD Garden, with the only sections left unoccupied being the ones directly behind the team benches.

It was the kind of electric atmosphere players missed in the bubble last season, when the Islanders reached the conference finals before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Lightning.

The Islanders still can win this series, of course, and at least get back to that round. But if they do not, this could well become the second year in a row they are eliminated by the Cup champion.

The Bruins look that good.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.