Just when it was going so well for the Islanders, they lost another key player to injury.
Bo Horvat left Thursday’s game over the Ducks in the middle of the second period after taking an awkward fall while battling with Drew Helleson for the puck. He limped off while struggling to put weight on his left leg and went straight to the dressing room. He did not return to the game, with the Islanders announcing a lower-body injury.
The Islanders are already without Kyle Palmieri (ACL) and Alexander Romanov (right shoulder) for the remainder of the season, and have dealt with shorter-term injuries to Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Jonathan Drouin.
Losing Horvat, whose 19 goals not only lead the team but are almost double anyone else’s total, would be extremely hard to recover from.
“Everyone’s concerned for Bo,” Anders Lee said during the second intermission to MSG’s Shannon Hogan. “You never want to see anyone go down.”
Horvat has been in the middle of easily his best season since 2022-23, when he fell just short of 40 goals. He was pushing hard for a spot on Team Canada at the Olympics and averaging 20:47 of ice per night, second only to Mat Barzal amongst Islander forwards.
Without him, the Islanders would likely have to use Pageau as a second-line center with Barzal as the No. 1. Pageau, since returning from injury, had been playing wing on Barzal’s line, and there had not been an obvious No. 1 between Barzal and Horvat.
The Islanders were leading Anaheim 3-0 when Horvat got hurt and would move into second in the Metropolitan Division on points with a win.
As good as their season has been so far, though, an injury to Horvat would change it immeasurably.
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