{"id":475702,"date":"2025-12-27T21:22:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T21:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/475702\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T21:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T21:22:22","slug":"bo-horvat-returns-duclair-a-healthy-scratch-as-ny-islanders-host-rivals-at-ubs-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/475702\/","title":{"rendered":"Bo Horvat returns, Duclair a healthy scratch as NY Islanders host rivals at UBS Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5i\">The <strong>New York Islanders<\/strong> are poised to get a significant offensive lift Saturday night with the return of <strong>Bo Horvat<\/strong>, though his reentry into the lineup comes with difficult ripple effects elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5l\">Horvat is expected to play for the first time in five games after missing time with a lower-body injury, rejoining the top line alongside <strong>Jonathan Drouin<\/strong> and <strong>Emil Heineman<\/strong>. He also resumed his regular roles on both the power play and penalty kill during morning skate.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">\u201cI\u2019m feeling good about myself right now and where I\u2019m at,\u201d Horvat said. \u201cI just want to talk to Patrick and make sure everything\u2019s good to go, and hopefully I\u2019ll be in tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5r\">Before the injury, Horvat was the engine of the Islanders\u2019 offense, leading the club with 31 points (19 goals, 12 assists) in 32 games. In his absence, the Islanders went 2-2-1 and were held to two goals or fewer in regulation in all five games, underscoring just how much Horvat\u2019s presence stabilizes the attack down the middle.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">Still, Horvat acknowledged that the return won\u2019t be seamless. \u201cI can\u2019t think it\u2019s just going to be easy,\u201d he said. \u201cI have to work for it and take it shift by shift.\u201d Head coach <strong>Patrick Roy<\/strong> welcomed Horvat back while also crediting the group for staying competitive without him. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have him back,\u201d Roy said. \u201cIt also showed the depth that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">That depth, however, has forced Roy into uncomfortable decisions. With Horvat reclaiming his spot, <strong>Anthony Duclair<\/strong> is expected to be a healthy scratch despite solid recent play. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to take guys out of the lineup,\u201d Roy said. \u201cBut those are the tough decisions you have to make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">For the Islanders, the hope is clear: Horvat\u2019s return jumpstarts an offense that\u2019s been grinding for goals, even if it means short-term sacrifices elsewhere in the lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Islanders are poised to get a significant offensive lift Saturday night with the return of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":475703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-475702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115793634465205122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475702","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=475702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}