Isles Day-to-Day: Horvat Misses Practice, Sorokin Skates 

Bo Horvat missed New York Islanders practice at UBS Arena on Friday morning and is ruled out until the end of the week, where he'll be re-evaluated, per Head Coach Patrick Roy.

Horvat suffered an injury in the third period of the Islanders’ New Year’s Day game against the Utah Mammoth. The Isles’ leading goal scorer left the game and didn’t return following a mid-ice collision with Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi.

The injury comes a day after Horvat was named to the Team Canada roster for the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina in February.

The 30-year-old forward leads the Islanders in points (33) and goals (21) in 36 games played. Horvat missed five games in December with a lower-body injury and scored in two of the four games since his return.

Ilya Sorokin (IR) made progress toward returning, as he joined the team for practice. Sorokin missed five games with what was described by the team as a nagging injury. Roy said that Sorokin will serve as a backup on Saturday vs the Toronto Maple Leafs, with a plan for him to start against the New Jersey Devils on Tueday at UBS Arena.

"Just for him to get back into game shape, get a couple of practices in and play against New Jersey," Roy said following Friday's practice.

David Rittich, who made six consecutive starts and went 3-2-1 over that span, was not on the ice for practice.

See below for today's lines at practice:

LINES

Anders Lee – Mathew Barzal – Emil Heineman
Max Shabanov – JG Pageau – Max Tsyplakov
Jonathan Drouin - Cal Ritchie - Simon Holmstrom
Kyle MacLean - Casey Cizikas - Marc Gatcomb
Anthony Duclair

Matthew Schaefer – Ryan Pulock
Adam Pelech – Tony DeAngelo
Adam Boqvist – Scott Mayfield

Ilya Sorokin
Marcus Hogberg

BEHIND THE LINE CHANGES

Roy shuffled his top nine in practice, looking to try new things in practice and in game action. A key to his changes was grouping together Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal, who have each recorded 14 points in the last 20 games, which lead the team over that span.

“We like the chemistry between Simon [Holmstrom] and Cal [Ritchie], we through they played well. And Anders [Lee] and [Mathew] Barzal, have been playing really well together. If you look at the last 20 games we played, Anders and Barzy are our top scorers for our team. Heineman and Drouin are a good fit for those two lines."

TSYPLAKOV AND SHABANOV UNITED

Max Tysplakov and Max Shabanov will start a game together for the first time on Saturday against the Maple Leafs. Roy said he liked how the two played together when they were on the same line in Thursday’s 7-2 loss to Utah, so he’s interested to see them on the wings of JG Pageau, plus the two have a Russian connection and they both came from the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

“I think playing with Pager, it’ll help them a lot. I’m curious to see them, I feel like the connection is there, so let’s see how it goes.”