The Islanders have struggled a bit of late, dropping six of eight games to begin January, including a 4-3 overtime loss to the Capitals in their last game on Monday. New York is currently tied with Pittsburgh for the second wild card spot in the East with 50 points apiece, though the Islanders (23-18-4) do have two games in hand.
"Normally, you feel the desperation post-All-Star Break. The Metropolitan's a really tight division, there's a lot of good teams in there so I'm sure they're already in that mode," said Montgomery.
Montgomery added that the Bruins must be prepared for the Islanders' heavy forechecking and strong defensive structure.
"They're a really well-coached team and they're really predictable. That predictability they're extremely good at," said Montgomery. "We've got to be really good at breaking pucks out. They're a heavy forechecking team. They defend their net really well, so it's hard to penetrate good scoring opportunities against them.
"They have elite goaltending. So, you couple those things, which I think are the strengths of their team, I think it makes for a hard night."
Mathew Barzal paces the Islanders with 41 points (11 goals, 30 assists) in 44 games, while Brock Nelson and Anders Lee lead the club with 15 goals each. Goalies Ilya Sorokin is 15-14-3 with a 2.30 goals against average and .925 save percentage in 34 games.
