Bo Horvat ‘day to day’ following early exit with leg injury in Islanders latest blow
Just when it was going so well for the Islanders, they lost another key player to injury.
Bo Horvat left Thursday’s 5-2 win 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 only update I have is lower-body injury and he’s gonna be day to day,” coach Patrick Roy said after the game.
The Islanders are already without Kyle Palmieri (ACL) and Alexander Romanov (right shoulder) for the remainder of the season, and have dealt with short-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. The implication from Roy that it is a short-term injury at least sounds like the Islanders avoided a worst-case scenario.
“Obviously, when he doesn’t come back, it’s a big loss,” Ryan Pulock said. “A guy that does everything for us. Whatever it takes here, it’s a long year and you’re gonna need everyone to step up.”
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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 Mathew Barzal among 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.
“At some point, these guys are extremely big keys for our team,” Anders Lee said. “… So we can plug them as best we can. I think we’ve done a phenomenal job of that and we’re gonna have to keep doing it. But that’s all we can really do at the end of the day.
“So kudos to the boys still doing that and stepping up in those roles. But I’d prefer that to be the last of them.”
Drouin (lower back) rejoined the team for morning skate. Roy said “there’s a good chance” the winger returns Saturday against Tampa Bay.
Lee moved into fifth on the Islanders’ all-time scoring list with his 296th and 297th goals, passing Brock Nelson.