BOSTON — Of all 32 teams in the league, the Islanders might be the one most comfortable and confident in their brand of hockey.

That has not changed in about five years since general manager Lou Lamoriello took over. The Islanders want to grind. They want to hit. They want to play physically and wear you down. That is their path to winning without overwhelming skill.

“You can peg us in as a defensive team, whatever, boring team, whatever you want to call us,” Kyle Palmieri said. “But we’re here to try and win hockey games. If it takes defensive, boring, our goalies playing hockey, whatever it is, it’s gonna be an opportunity for us to try to win a hockey game. That’s it. That’s what this group is here to do.”

Any dissection of the issues plaguing the Islanders right now needs to start and end with their failure to do just that.