With the NHL playoff race taking shape, the New York Islanders are once again in the thick of the action.
The Islanders, as expected, have been in contention all season long, but their chances continue to get better as their captain Bo Horvat continues to get into the swing of things.
Horvat, who missed more than three weeks in January due to a lower-body injury, has played in seven games since his return, leading the Islanders to a 4-3-0 record, including a massive 5-4 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday when Horvat had three points, including the game-winning goal.
The Islanders and their captain look to continue their momentum when they travel to face the New Jersey Devils on Thursday in what will be each team’s last game before the Olympic break.
“You’d like to think it was coming,” Horvat said after his production against the Devils. “You try to not think about it and do other things away from the puck that go unnoticed and eventually get rewarded for it. So, to finally get the reward, it was great.”
After the break, New York hopes reward comes with more consistency down the stretch. The Islanders are just 5-5-0 since Jan 17, but, led by Horvat’s return, the group feels it has been playing better hockey of late.
“We’ve gone through stretches and games, especially the last couple, where we’ve actually played really good hockey and just haven’t gotten the result,” Horvat said. “For us to get that result (against Pittsburgh), maybe not having our best game, definitely boosted us going into Thursday.”
What should give the Islanders even more confidence is what took place the last time the two teams met. On Jan. 6, the Devils absorbed one of their worst losses in recent memory with a 9-0 shellacking.
In that meeting, New York’s Anthony Duclair recorded a hat-trick with five points, while Casey Cizikas, Matthew Barzal and Tony DeAngelo all finished with three points.
To avoid a similar performance, the Devils will have to dig deep in what has been a challenging season. New Jersey has lost two straight and four of its last five games. The team is near the bottom of the standings in the Eastern Conference.
“The level of urgency has got to go up. We have to go on a run. It’s as simple as that,” Devils forward Connor Brown said. “It’d be naive to not realize what type of position we are and how many points back of the playoffs we’re in. The urgency needs to get going.
“Whether the season is slipping away or not, you have to look in the eye and realize we have a big game before the break. We’ll have an opportunity to reset after that.”
No game will be bigger than Thursday for the Devils, who are nine points behind the Islanders in the Metro Division.
“We know what situation we’re in, but we’re not looking more than a day ahead,” the Devils’ Jesper Bratt said. “We know the Metro and the East has been a good (battle), and we haven’t been able to maintain a lot of wins in a row. It’s obviously frustrating. … We have one really important game until the break. That has to be our focus now and then recharge.”
