Good Morning, Islanders Country.
There are early-season losses, and then there are early-season tests.
Losing Alexander Romanov for the year qualifies as the second kind.
It changes the blue line. It changes responsibilities. And when a player has already fought his way back from one major injury only to be hit with another, it can shake a dressing room, too.
So the conventional wisdom heading into last night was pretty simple: Peter DeBoer would have his team ready.
He did.
The Blackhawks were flat, and the Islanders didn’t give them much reason to wake up. Bo Horvat scored his third power-play goal of the season in a low-event first period, Emil Heineman added another, Anthony Duclair joined in, and before long the only real drama was whether Ilya Sorokin could make it back-to-back shutouts.
He couldn’t. But that hardly mattered.
(Sorokin did set a career high with a 165:31 shutout streak)
What mattered was the response.
“I thought our whole D-core was really good tonight,” DeBoer said. “I liked how we broke the puck out, I liked how we defended. Maysie came in and gave us some solid minutes. I thought it was Tony DeAngelo's best game he's played here this year. I thought it was Pulock’s best game this year so far. I thought Stan [Stanley] was excellent. Schaef and Pelly are consistently excellent every night. But I thought everyone else gave us some really good minutes tonight.”
This team has already absorbed a few bumps in the opening weeks of the season. Romanov’s injury was the biggest one yet, and the Islanders answered the way you wanted them to - professionally, cleanly, without turning the night into something more complicated than it needed to be.
That doesn’t erase the problem. Romanov is still gone. The defense still has to adjust. The season will still ask a lot more difficult questions than Chicago did.
But this was one of those nights where the answer was good enough.
Take the two points. Take the response. Move on.
Let’s dive in.
Game Recap
Bo Horvat scored twice, and Ilya Sorokin made 22 saves as the New York Islanders bounced back from Tuesday’s loss to the Rangers with a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night.
Horvat opened the scoring late in the first period, burying a rebound off a Matthew Schaefer power-play shot. The Islanders took control in the second, getting goals from Emil Heineman and Anthony Duclair less than three minutes apart to build a 3-0 lead.
Duclair’s goal was his first of the season, while defenseman Logan Stanley contributed two assists. Chicago’s Frank Nazar spoiled Sorokin’s shutout bid with 2:32 remaining, but Horvat sealed the victory with an empty-netter.
GameScore Impact Card
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders aim to keep momentum going on Saturday night when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at UBS Arena. Face-off is 7:30 PM EDT.
📊 STANDINGS
Cheap Shot
Bo Horvat was being evaluated after the game following Blackhawks forward Frank Nazar checking him illegally to the head as Horvat aimed for and scored an empty-net goal. Nazar was issued a 5-minute major and a game misconduct.
“We’re a band of brothers in there and we’re always going to stick up for each other,” said Anthony Duclair about the fights/scrums after the hit.
Barzal Takes Big Step Forward
After missing all of training camp, the preseason, and the first three regular-season games, Mathew Barzal skated alone Thursday for the first time since inflammation around his left knee sidelined him. There's still no firm return date, but Mathieu Darche has said Barzal should need only a few team practices once he can resume skating regularly.
That makes the next few days more important than Thursday itself. The issue has never simply been whether Barzal could skate; it’s whether the knee stays quiet once his workload increases. For a team that scored six goals in one game and just three combined in its two losses, getting its “most dynamic forward” back could change the lineup's entire shape. The hopeful part is that the timeline finally feels like it’s moving forward instead of sideways.
Problem Now, Bigger Problem Later
The immediate problem is obvious: Alexander Romanov is gone for six to eight months and the Islanders have to replace a top-four left-shot defenseman after only three games. But the New York Post’s Ethan Sears focused Thursday on the longer-term complication. Romanov is in the second season of the eight-year, $50 million extension Mathieu Darche gave him as his first major move as GM, and his no-trade protection kicks in next summer. If Romanov doesn’t return before then — or doesn’t return as the same player — the Islanders could suddenly have far less flexibility around a $6.25 million annual commitment.
The injury also changes how the Islanders can think about their young defensemen. Kashawn Aitcheson, Isaiah George and others aren’t simply future depth anymore; one or more may become necessary pieces sooner than expected. That matters if Darche eventually wants to chase a star in the trade market. Prospects are usually the currency for that.
Romanov’s injury therefore affects both the lineup and the Islanders’ ability to use their prospect pool aggressively. A bad knee injury is already costly. A bad knee injury attached to a long-term contract can start influencing decisions far beyond the player who got hurt.
4 in the Top 100
A year ago Matthew Schaefer wasn’t ranked at all. This year? No. 16 on ESPN’s list of the NHL’s top 100 players. EyesOnIsles broke down all four Islanders on the list, with Schaefer leading the group after a rookie season with 23 goals, 59 points, and the Calder Trophy.
ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski acknowledged that placing a second-year player inside the top 20 might be controversial, but the ranking reflects how rapidly Schaefer’s reputation has changed.
The other Islanders:
🥅 Ilya Sorokin — No. 27, up from No. 66
🧢 Bo Horvat — No. 85, up from No. 100
🎨 Mathew Barzal — No. 91, down from No. 71
What jumps out isn’t just having four players on the list. It’s the direction they’re moving. Sorokin jumped 39 spots. Horvat rose. Barzal’s injuries pulled him backward. And Schaefer went from unranked to the edge of the league’s true superstar tier in one season.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Bo Horvat scored his 102nd and 103rd goals as an Islander, passing Anders Kallur (101) and Anthony Beauvillier (102) for 33rd place in club history. Sorokin recorded his 156th win for the Islanders, leaving him one behind Chico Resch for second place in club history. Matthew Schaefer recorded his 62nd point, tying Pat LaFontaine for third place among Isles teenagers.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On Oct. 10, 1996, Larry Brooks and Peter Botte of the New York Post reported that Islanders majority Owner John Pickett had agreed to sell the “beleaguered, underfinanced” team to 32-year-old TX billionaire John Spano. The terms of the sale, believed to be “well in excess” of $100M, specify that the Islanders will not be moved from Long Island.
That same day, Ken Moritsugu of Newsday reported that Mets part-owner Nelson Doubleday was interested in buying the Isles, but an unnamed source in Nassau County told him “another buyer” was close to a deal.
Doubleday’s investor group would have been led by his Sterling-Doubleday Inc., which would have “put up most of the money.”
📺 Off The Island: How Do The Isles Replace Romanov?
🔗 NY Islanders dealing with early adversity as they host Chicago Blackhawks at UBS by Jiggs Westfall, Eyes on Isles “With Romanov gone long term and Barzal still sidelined, Thursday’s game became an early test of how much real depth the Islanders have built.”
🔗 NY Islanders Showcase Potential New Defensive Pairings With Alexander Romanov Out by New York Islanders On SI '“The first post-Romanov look keeps Schaefer on the right side, elevates Stanley and brings Mayfield back into the lineup after three healthy scratches.”
And we leave you with this…Victor Eklund faced Chicago’s Anton Frondell, another product of the Djurgårdens system for the first time. The two came up through Swedish hockey together and were teammates on Sweden’s 2026 World Junior championship team before becoming NHL opponents.
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