their 3-2 overtime victory over the Devils on Monday.<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s early in the season, but something special could be happening for the 30-year-old center who was acquired from Vancouver at the 2023 trade deadline and quickly signed an eight-year, $68 million contract extension that runs through the 2030-31 season.<\/p>\n
Entering Tuesday\u2019s action across North America, Horvat was tied for second in the NHL with 12 goals. <\/p>\n
The Canadiens\u2019 Cole Caufield had that same number, two behind leader Nathan MacKinnon of the Avalanche.<\/p>\n
Horvat\u2019s superpower this season has been his shot. His goal at Prudential Center was a beauty as he fielded a pass from Kyle Palmieri in open ice at the top of the slot, skated in between the circles and lifted a wrister to the top left corner past Jacob Markstrom. <\/p>\n
It wouldn\u2019t be accurate to assert Horvat is leaving his teammates speechless because they have plenty to say.<\/p>\n
Bo Horvat skates with the puck during the third period of the Islanders\u2019 road overtime win over the Devils on Nov. 10, 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he might be the best shooter in the world right now,\u201d Mat Barzal, who scored the overtime winner in Newark, said of Horvat. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not just \u2019cause he\u2019s getting lucky, it\u2019s \u2019cause his shot is truly world-class. Anytime he\u2019s around the net, he\u2019s got a chance. In the slot, [the puck\u2019s] got a great chance of going in. None of it\u2019s luck. It\u2019s work and he\u2019s got an amazing shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jonathan Drouin skates on the second line with Barzal and Simon Holmstrom, but is the right wing on the first power-play unit, which is centered by Horvat. Like all of the Islanders, Drouin knows what to do when he\u2019s on the ice with the sniper.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now it\u2019s kind of a running gag we got,\u201d Drouin said. \u201cI said it earlier, he\u2019s got one of those shots where every time he shoots it, there\u2019s some feeling it might go in. He\u2019s super hot right now, we gotta give him the puck and give him shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horvat\u2019s career high for goals is 38, which he accumulated in the 2022-23 season (31 with the Canucks, seven with the Islanders). He has buried 33 and 28 goals in his first two full years on the Island.<\/p>\n
If the numbers on the back of his hockey card are a true harbinger of where this season will go, he won\u2019t end up anywhere near the top of the franchise\u2019s single-season scoring list. But this one number is undeniable, at least for today: Horvat is on pace to score 62 goals this season.<\/p>\n
The only person in franchise history to beat that number is Hall of Famer Mike Bossy, who scored 69 goals in 1978-70; 68 in 1980-81; and 64 in 1981-82. Bossy\u2019s name actually fills nine of the top 11 single-season totals, with only Pierre Turgeon (58 goals in 1992-93) and Pat LaFontaine (54 in 1989-90) residing in that exclusive neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Bo Horvat (center) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal during the Islanders\u2019 home loss to the Bruins on Nov. 4, 2025. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Horvat doesn\u2019t exactly resemble Bossy on the ice. Horvat is a tank at 6-foot-1, 225 pounds, shoots lefty and is largely the playmaker for his line from the center position. Bossy, whose flowing brown hair often covered his nameplate, was 6-foot, 186 pounds, shot righty and was the sniper who put 573 pucks past goalies in a 10-season NHL career.<\/p>\n
Bossy, who died of cancer in 2022 at age 65, was best known for his slap shot. Stick pointed toward the ceiling as he sped down the wing, whipping around to crush vulcanized rubber and send it over, around and through the goaltender.<\/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
That\u2019s not necessarily Horvat\u2019s game. Of his 12 goals, five have come on wristers and seven on snap shots. Not a traditional slapper \u2014 which has become a lost art in the NHL \u2014 among them.<\/p>\n
There are a lot of miles, games and goals to go for Horvat to climb that hill with the Dynasty\u2019s greatest goal scorer. But if you ask his teammates, they\u2019d say it again: He\u2019s got a good shot.<\/p>\n
Bo Horvat (14) celebrates after scoring a second-period goal during the Islanders\u2019 road overtime win over the Devils. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Islanders practice here on Wednesday before taking on the Golden Knights on Thursday and moving on to Salt Lake City for Friday\u2019s game against the Mammoth. The tour takes them through Colorado, Dallas and Detroit next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re looking at the schedule, you always go, \u2018Wow, these are [going to be] challenging games,\u2019 \u201d Isles coach Patrick Roy said. \u201cBut we\u2019re [going to] take it one by one. We have a challenging test in Vegas. We\u2019ll have to be ready for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Islanders are packin\u2019 the fastest gun in the East as they head to the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":373712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[156530,169448,1301,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-373711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-bo-horvat","9":"tag-mathew-barzal","10":"tag-new-york-islanders","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115536962848475736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}