So does getting Horvat back quickly, before any serious damage was done in the standings \u2014 especially given that at first glance, it appeared to be a much more serious injury than it turned out to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch a huge boost,\u201d Anders Lee told The Post. \u201cWe did our best to fill his shoes while he was gone. Got a big win last game and a couple other ones, but you can\u2019t replace him. Can\u2019t replace Bo. Just a big boost to have him back on the ice, back in the room. Looking forward to seeing him out there tonight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Bo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/14-new-york-islanders-moves-116358326.jpg\")
Bo Horvat is coming back to the Islanders after missing five games. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
Saturday was the healthiest lineup the Islanders have rolled out in some time. <\/p>\n
Before Horvat got hurt, they were missing Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Jonathan Drouin; the last time all three of those players were in the lineup together was Nov. 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That trio being back without any corresponding injuries crowded Anthony Duclair out of the lineup. No. 11 drew out as a healthy scratch as part of a handful of lineup changes. <\/p>\n
Horvat centered the top line between Drouin and Emil Heineman while Pageau \u2014 who had been in that spot \u2014 moved to Cal Ritchie\u2019s right wing on the third line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second line, with Mathew Barzal centering Lee and Simon Holmstrom, stayed the same. So did the fourth line of Kyle MacLean, Casey Cizikas and Marc Gatcomb, which Roy has gone out of his way not to touch lately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a tough one, I won\u2019t lie,\u201d Roy said of scratching Duclair for the first time this season. \u201cEverybody\u2019s playing so well, it\u2019s heartbreaking to get guys out of the lineup, but we knew we had to make that decision when Bo would be back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took [Max Shabanov] out in Buffalo, tonight it\u2019s [Duclair]. He\u2019s been playing really well. We\u2019re in a situation that we have to make those tough calls and that\u2019s what we want, actually. Making tough decisions. I spoke with him this morning, explained to him the situation. Sometimes you have to make the decisions, but it\u2019s nothing related to, is he playing well or bad. Absolutely not, he\u2019s been playing really well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Horvat, who had been skating with the Islanders prior to the break, said he expected no limitations Saturday. <\/p>\n
He practiced with both the power-play and penalty-kill units Saturday morning, indicating his usual heavy workload of minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m gonna play, I\u2019m gonna play in any situation,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously feeling good about myself and my game. Just go out there and do what I do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/scores-first-period-new-york-117063587.jpg\")
Bo Horvat celebrates a goal earlier this season. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
The injury, he said, hasn\u2019t been bothering him in practices, though he cautioned that is a different thing than a game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That, he stressed, was not being taken for granted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m gonna have to work for it,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna be easy and pick [back] up, everything\u2019s gonna come easy. I gotta work for it. I gotta work as hard as I was working before I got hurt. Just get back to the game, focus on the little things and not get too ahead of myself. Just take it shift by shift.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was just five games without Bo Horvat, but for the Islanders it felt like much longer.\u00a0 \u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[75617,394,385,140908,99],"class_list":["post-373400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-bo-horvat","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-nhl","tag-patrick-roy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}