Bo Horvat said the Islanders need to get off to a good start at home and be tough to play against in their own rink as Victor Eklund opened a sixth season at UBS Arena. The Islanders did that on Saturday night against the Devils, while trying to turn a solid home record into one that better matches playoff expectations.
“For sure,” Horvat said when asked about home-ice advantage. “Having that last change and that home-ice advantage throughout the year is such an important thing for us. If we can get off to a good start at home and be tough to play against in our own rink, it’s going to make teams hate to come here. I think we have to establish that early in the year.”
UBS Arena and Bo Horvat
The Islanders went 22-17-2 at home last season and missed the playoffs for a second straight season. Their five-season home record at UBS Arena is 107-73-25, which works out to a.583 home points percentage. That sits below the.600 line the club associates with teams that reliably qualify for the postseason.
Horvat’s point was echoed by coach Pete DeBoer, who took over with four games remaining last season after Patrick Roy lost his job. “Yeah, well, that’s a huge piece of what we’re doing,” DeBoer said before the home opener.
Pete DeBoer and UBS Arena
DeBoer said teams that make the playoffs usually establish a home-ice presence. “We want to be a hard team to play against both home and road. But I don’t think it’s any secret if you’re going to be a playoff team, you have to be a good home team. There’s very few teams that get in that don’t establish a home-ice presence. This should be a hard place to play. I think, historically, it always has been. We want to make sure we establish that,” he said.
He coached four games from the visitor’s bench at UBS Arena and went 3-0-1 in those games. The Islanders also had stretches that showed the ceiling at home: they went 25-13-3 in 2022-23 and 21-10-10 the following season.
Mathew Barzal and Thursday or Friday
Jean-Gabriel Pageau said the group wants to end plays quickly and tighten its defensive-zone work. “It’s play hard within our system, the net front, the battles that are 50-50,” he said. “You want to come out of it with [the puck]. You don’t want to let them run around in your zone and extend the shift to two minutes. We want to end plays quick. We want to be quick in our defensive zone, and I think that’s key.”
The team also said Mathew Barzal is expected to start skating on Thursday or Friday. That gives the Islanders a near-term checkpoint as they try to pair a healthier lineup with better home results and make UBS Arena harder to visit.
