Good Morning, Islanders Country.
There are nights in sports when the scoreboard says victory but your heart isn’t in the mood to celebrate Nights when you win, but you don’t feel like a winner. Nights when the joy of a first NHL goal (Congrats, Travis Mitchell!) is replaced with a lump in your throat.
For the Islanders, Thursday at UBS Arena was one of those nights.
A 5–2 win over the Pacific-leading, upstart Anaheim Ducks should’ve been another feather in the cap of a team suddenly stacking impressive performances. It should’ve been another hopeful step in a season that’s beginning to feel like it might become something. Instead, emotions were split right down the middle: one eye on the scoreboard… and one eye on the tunnel Bo Horvat limped down.
The play looked harmless until it wasn’t — his skate trapped, his legs stretched in ways that aren’t allowed. In an instant, celebration turned into dread. The crowd went quiet. The bench tightened. And every fan on Long Island began bargaining with the hockey gods. Not Bo, too.
But here’s the thing about this team: they didn’t blink.
A 3–0 lead tightened into a one-goal game in the third, just enough to make the walls feel like they were closing in. It was going to be one of those nights. And then the suddenly hot Simon Holmstrom stretched every inch of that long reach to restore breathing room. Moments later, Ryan Pulock got the good kind of Chris Kreider deflection — the kind Isles fans still have PTSD about — to seal the win. It was, by every metric, a terrific victory.
It just didn’t feel like one. Not right away.
Because everything — the surge, the record, the momentum — feels tethered to Horvat, who is in the middle of a career season playing the kind of hockey that elevates entire rosters. The postgame updates were hopeful, the worst avoided for now. But the cloud lingers.Sometimes you win. Sometimes you worry. And sometimes, like last night, you do both at once.
Game Recap
Anders Lee scored twice and added two assists as the New York Islanders beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 on Thursday night at UBS Arena. David Rittich stopped 31 shots, helping the Islanders earn their fifth win in six games.
Simon Holmstrom had a goal and two assists, while defensemen Travis Mitchell and Ryan Pulock also scored. Mitchell opened the scoring with his first NHL goal in his seventh career game. Lee followed with back-to-back power-play goals, giving him 297 career goals — fifth-most in franchise history.
Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson cut the deficit in the second period with his team-leading 17th goal, and Troy Terry made it 3-2 with a shorthanded tally early in the third. But the Islanders responded as Holmstrom netted his sixth of the season and Pulock added his first to seal the win.
Bo Horvat left in the second period with a lower-body injury after a collision with Drew Helleson. Ducks goalie Ville Husso made 32 saves in the loss.
GameScore Impact Card
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders will induct Pat LaFontaine into the team’s Hall of Fame ahead of Saturday afternoon’s tilt with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Face-off is scheduled for 3:30 PM EST.
📊 STANDINGS
Horvat Injured
Just when the Islanders’ momentum was building, they lost another key player. Bo Horvat exited Thursday’s win over the Ducks after an awkward collision with Drew Helleson, limping off while unable to put weight on his left leg. He did not return, and the team announced a lower-body injury.
Already without Kyle Palmieri and Alexander Romanov for the season — and recently missing Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Jonathan Drouin — the Islanders can ill afford another major loss. Horvat leads the team with 19 goals and is having his best season since 2022-23 “Everyone’s concerned for Bo,” Anders Lee told MSG during 2nd intermission. After the game, head coach Patrick Roy told the media that Horvat was day-to-day with a lower-body injury, which feels like the best-case scenario at the moment.
National Praise
The NHL on TNT panel delivered one of the strongest national endorsements yet of Matthew Schaefer’s impact on the New York Islanders, calling the 18-year-old defenseman “franchise-changing.” During Tuesday’s broadcast, analysts highlighted how Schaefer has already rewritten NHL record books, ranking second all-time among 18-year-old defensemen in points through 30 games — trailing only Hall of Famer Phil Housley — and sitting ahead of legends like Ray Bourque.
The panel praised Schaefer’s poise, pace and elite skating, noting that his ability to control the game from the back end has transformed the Islanders’ identity. Instead of the slow, grind-heavy style of past seasons, TNT analysts said the Isles now play with speed and excitement driven by Schaefer’s first-pass ability and confidence. Paul Bissonnette compared his offensive spark to Lane Hutson’s impact at BU and said the Isles haven’t had a rookie defenseman alter their trajectory like this since Cale Makar entered the league — while clarifying Schaefer isn’t Makar, but his impact at 18 is “generational.”
The panel also emphasized how the Islanders’ veterans have embraced Schaefer, allowing him to play freely, show personality and energize the room. In TNT’s words, Schaefer hasn’t just boosted the Islanders — he’s helping redefine them.
SNAP SHOT
Congrats to Bruce Bennett, who became the first photographer to be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday night. Bennett, who works for Getty Images to this day, was the de facto photographer of the Islanders ’ dynasty years after his photographic eye caught the eye of GM Bill Torrey.
“I had no idea Mr. Torrey knew I even existed,” Bennett said. “So, I started in 1982-83 season, and basically became the de facto team photographer of sorts, even now through the Getty Images days where I work now.”
You can watch Bennett’s Hall of Fame induction speech HERE. He was inducted alongside Scott Gomez, Zach Parise, Joe Pavelski, and Tara Mounsey.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per NHL PR, Anders Lee recorded his 296th career goal and passed Brock Nelson (295) for sole possession of fifth on the franchise’s all-time goal list. He trails Mike Bossy (573), Bryan Trottier (500), Denis Potvin (310) and Clark Gillies (304). Lee recorded his 80th career power-play goal and tied Pat LaFontaine for eighth most in Islanders history.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: Happy Birthday, Billy Smith! The Hall of Fame goaltender turns 75 today, and to celebrate, we look back at this interview the 1983 Conn Smythe Award winner gave after the Islanders captured their fourth Stanley Cup. In the post-game, ‘Smitty’ admits to just a little embellishment to earn a 5-minute major penalty against Glenn Anderson in the third period.
“When I hit Gretzky in Edmonton, he rolled around and cried like he was dying. So when he (Anderson) hit me tonight, I said ‘hey I might as well do the same thing’ so that’s what I did, I threw myself on my back and squirmed …all I want to tell the people in Canada and all over the world, two can play that game.”
📺 The Story of Pat LaFontaine’s Outdoor Rink, “The Barn.”
🔗 Islanders’ Scott Mayfield, teammates don’t hesitate to stand up for each other by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Ross Johnston wears a Ducks jersey now, his third season doing so, while Matt Martin, in his first season as an ex-player, comes to games in a suit as a special assistant to Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche, and their staggered departures have left the Islanders without a designated “tough guy.” Defenseman Scott Mayfield likely comes closest to currently filling that role.”
🔗 The Islanders are imperfect, but they’re also a surprise contender in a jumbled Eastern Conference by Ethan Sears, New York Post “Just 11 points separated first from 16th in the East before Wednesday’s games. As a point of reference, 24 points separated first from 16th in the West, and at this time last season, it was 15 points in the East. The Islanders have been smack dab in the middle of that equation for weeks, but woke up on Wednesday just two points behind Washington for the lead of both the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference.”
And we leave you with this…Travis Mitchell earns the Iron Man after first NHL goal
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I pray Bo is okay and it's just a sprain.
Joe is the isles fix podcast with Chris Botta done?? Last EP was in October. Seems done. HOPE I'M WRONG. LGI.