The year 2026 is upon us, Bo Horvat is an Olympian and something called the Utah Mammoth is in town to kick the new year off with a 3 p.m. EST start.
Before the calendar flipped, the Islanders eked out a shootout win in Chicago in far-from-convincing performance against a injury-laden squad. Hopefully they’ve got their heads screwed on straight this afternoon.
No practice on New Year’s Eve and no morning skate for this matinee, so lineup news will come shortly before gametime. Ilya Sorokin’s status and which forward gets scratched are among the open questions.