Bo Horvat has struggled to find his rhythm with the NY Islanders this season

When the NY Islanders acquired Bo Horvat a month before the 2022 trade deadline, he immediately made an impact on the core of this team and helped lead them to the playoffs. Last season, with a healthy Mat Barzal on his wing, Horvat had the second-best season of his career in terms of production and made the playoffs again.

This offseason, the Isles signed Anthony Duclair to round out the top tier alongside Horvat and Barzal. With Duclair and Barzal out of action for over a month, no one on the roster suffered more than Horvat.

Bo Horvat struggles to find his form

Horvat has now gone 12 games without scoring and has only scored five goals this season. That puts him on pace to finish with under 20 goals for the first time since the shortened 2020-21 season, when he scored 19 goals for the Vancouver Canucks.

With Barzal and Duclair absent, Horvat played primarily with Anders Lee and either JG Pageau or Simon Holmstrom. Lee, who is enjoying a rejuvenated season after many thought he was dead, has scored 11 goals this season and five in the same 12-game span. Horvat remained scoreless.

It’s not that Horvat hasn’t had his chances, as he seemingly had one golden chance per game but was unable to convert it.

“He puts too much pressure on himself to score,” Patrick Roy said after last night’s OT loss to the Montreal Canadiens. “Right now it’s his main focus. Bo Horvat is a 200-foot player. This is a guy who’s going to get these chances and he’s going to score these goals.”

The hope is that with the return of Duclair and Barzal, we’ll see more of the Horvat we’ve seen since joining the Islanders. Duclair is skating alone again, but Barzal doesn’t appear to be back on the ice yet. Rebuilding that top line will be one of the key components heading into the postseason, especially in an Eastern Conference where most teams are struggling to find their form.