Can the NY Islanders tread water with Bo Horvat out of the lineup?

The New York Islanders are being tested right now.

There’s no debate about the Islanders’ MVP so far. Ilya Sorokin has been a backbone, a safety net, and on some nights, the thing holding everything together. But Bo Horvat’s injury has quickly reminded everyone how fragile the rest of the operation can look without him in the middle.

Without Horvat, the Islanders haven’t just lost a goal scorer. They’ve lost their offensive engine, their most reliable power-play trigger, and a leader on the ice and in the dressing room. Now the mission is simple, if not easy: tread water.

The schedule actually offers a small lifeline. Just five games over 14 days gives the Islanders time to breathe, reset, and hopefully survive until Horvat returns. But surviving doesn’t mean standing around waiting. It means everyone doing more.

Patrick Roy isn’t interested in excuses, and honestly, neither should the fanbase be. This team has already absorbed season-ending losses to Kyle Palmieri and Alexander Romanov. They’ve navigated stretches without Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Jonathan Drouin.

“This is the quality of this team, we’re not looking for excuses after a game,” Roy said. “We focus on our game and what we have to do and stay in the present moment. It happens to every team to miss a quality player during the course of the season. We’re missing three. But, hey, stay in the present moment. We want to give ourselves a chance.”

The expectation hasn’t changed. What did change against Detroit was the margin for error.

The Islanders struggled to generate shots, struggled to forecheck, and struggled to protect the middle of the ice. Outside of the Barzal–Heineman–Drouin line, there wasn’t enough push. The power play looked lost without Horvat’s presence in the slot. The penalty kill finally cracked after weeks of dominance. None of that is shocking. Horvat leads the team in goals, points, and power-play impact. You don’t replace that with one guy. You replace it with a committee.

That means more from Pageau’s line. More sustained pressure from the fourth line. The occasional goal from a defenseman not named Matthew Schaefer, like Scott Mayfield on Tuesday night.

The goaltending can only do so much. Everyone needs to chip in to avoid the team slipping too much while Horvat gets healthy and then hopefully back to his early season form.