It’s early November, still time for experiments in the chemistry lab on every NHL team. But the Islanders already have a reaction that need not be tinkered with moving forward.
Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal are combusting on the top line, as they did two seasons ago, and show every sign of being hockey soulmates, this time for the long haul.
“They’re both very good skaters, they’re both very high-skill guys,” coach Patrick Roy said after practice on Thursday.
“For some reason, they feel each other on the ice. They see each other. It’s been working really well for both of them.”
Barzal’s 2024-25 season was derailed by injury, and he began the current campaign as a center on the second line.
But for the past three games, starting late in Friday’s game against Washington, a stretch in which the Islanders have gone 2-0-1, Roy has used Barzal alongside Horvat at center and Emil Heineman on the other wing. Cal Ritchie now is the second-line center.
The beauty of the arrangement was evident against the Bruins on Tuesday night, when Barzal found Horvat for a lovely goal on a 2-and-1 off a turnover forced by Heineman.
“It’s great,” Barzal told Newsday of being back with Horvat. “He’s easy to play with. I feel like we’ve got a good thing.”
Barzal, who is in his 10th season, called Horvat “probably the best player I’ve played with, and I feel like I’m lucky to have a guy that can, I think, think the game at the same speed.
“We also have complementary styles. I’m very puck possession and passing and he’s very much solid all around and a good shooter . . . He’s definitely the right kind of guy.”
As for the third guy, Roy said of Heineman, “I like his speed. I like his physicality. I think he brings that element that that line needs. When he goes to the net, I think it opens up the game for Barzy and for Bo. And he’s a good scorer. I feel like it’s a great fit.”
Horvat leads the team with nine goals and 15 points. Barzal is tied for the lead in assists with seven. Heineman is tied for second in goals with five.
Barring injury, it seems unlikely the trio will be broken up and reassigned anytime soon.
“I wouldn’t want to play with anyone else,” Barzal said. “That’s my guy.”
Notes & quotes: Roy said David Rittich will start in goal against the Wild on Friday and Ilya Sorokin against the Rangers on Saturday . . . Captain Anders Lee said he did not make much of the Bruins’ Nikita Zadorov taking a shot at Islanders fans on social media, saying UBS Arena “was a library” on Tuesday night. Fans had gotten on Zadarov when he got physical with rookie D Matthew Schaeffer. “I think the chirping is part of our game,” Lee said “They went after him, he came back. What do you expect him to do, just eat all of it?”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.