-Ed-Mulholland-USA-TODAY-Sports-93
(New York, NY) For the past two months, Mathew Barzal has been forced to watch his teammate Bo Horvat from the press box. That will change Monday night.
Barzal will make him much anticipated return to the lineup when the Islanders go to Carolina to take on the Hurricanes in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
“It honestly might be a good thing that he’s up there watching my game a little bit to see my tendencies,” Horvat said. “I kinda know what his tendencies are, he likes to have the puck and be on the perimeter, try to find guys. For me to open up and get those scoring opportunities, for him to find me, we seemed to be doing a good job of that at the beginning.”
Barzal and Horvat played just six full games together before the latter suffered a knee injury in Boston on Feb. 18. Albeit a small small size, the two exelled with Horvat scoring three goals with an assist, and Barzal scoring twice to go with six assists.
“I feel like it should click,” Barzal said. “Three lines are still the same, just throwing in a piece. I think it’ll just click just fine, like the way it had been clicking before.”
If the duo can pick where they left off, it will help give the Islanders a fighter chance in a first-round series where they come in as underdogs against Carolina.
