{"id":474183,"date":"2026-02-27T02:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T02:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/474183\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T02:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T02:13:13","slug":"bo-horvat-rejoins-islanders-after-coolest-experience-at-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/474183\/","title":{"rendered":"Bo Horvat rejoins Islanders after ‘coolest experience’ at Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 Four days ago, Bo Horvat was playing in the biggest game of his life with Team Canada<\/a> for Olympic gold.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, he was playing Game 59 of the regular season in Montreal, back to reality and the grind of a playoff race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a weird feeling,\u201d Horvat said before the Islanders faced the Habs. \u201cIt felt like a completely different season over there. Being with a different team the whole two weeks, you build relationships and stuff. It\u2019s different coming back and not having a lot of time to get back in the swing of things here. So I feel good. Got a good night\u2019s sleep last night for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BoBo Horvat skates during the second period of the Islanders\u2019 win over the Devils on Feb. 5, 2026 at the Prudential Center. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Horvat\u2019s first time skating with the Islanders was Thursday morning. <\/p>\n

And though coach Patrick Roy said he had no worries about Horvat\u2019s physical state or plans to watch his minutes, he is paying attention to the mental side of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came back from Nagano [after the 1998 Games], I should\u2019ve taken care of my mental side a little more,\u201d Roy said. \u201cI said, \u2018We\u2019ll be there for you. We\u2019ll help you, and if you need a break here and there from practices and stuff, we\u2019ll be more than happy to support him on that.\u2019 You gotta find a way to do that, especially a guy like him who cares so much about the team, wants to see the team do so well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horvat called playing in the Olympics<\/a> \u201cthe coolest experience I\u2019ve ever had in my life\u201d despite Team Canada settling for silver with a dramatic overtime loss to the United States.<\/p>\n

\"BrockBrock Nelson (left) hugs Bo Horvat after the United States win over Canada in the men\u2019s gold medal match on Feb. 22, 2026 in Milan, Italy. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful to be able to say I was there and be a part of that team,\u201d Horvat said. \u201cAnd that experience was something I\u2019ll never forget. I\u2019m happy my family was there to experience it with me and everybody as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the immediate future, there\u2019s only one way for him to play in such meaningful games again, and that is to help the Islanders go on a run of their own.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a part of that, I think, is right up there with winning a Stanley Cup,\u201d Horvat said. \u201cObviously, not the outcome we wanted. It still stings. But excited about that, just to be there and to represent your country at that big of a stage. Dream come true for me. Makes me want to come back here and push for a Stanley Cup, be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 Four days ago, Bo Horvat was playing in the biggest game of his life with Team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[3669,19,5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43,2787,31286],"class_list":["post-474183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-islanders","tag-bo-horvat","tag-canada","tag-hockey","tag-islanders","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkislanders","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-winter-olympics","tag-winter-olympics-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116140179841917376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}