Islanders’ Bo Horvat shades old Canucks side: ‘Better than Vancouver’

Tell us how you really feel, Bo Horvat. 

While being interviewed on MSG following the Islanders’ 4-0 win over the Flyers on Saturday night, Horvat dropped a quote that will reverberate around the city of Vancouver. 

“It’s been unbelievable,” Horvat said, asked about the Islanders’ playoff push and the fans at UBS Arena. Then came the hammer. “It’s a lot better than Vancouver. I’ll tell you that for free.” 

Horvat spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Canucks before the Islanders acquired him in late January in a trade that sent Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Raty and a conditional 2023 first-round pick to Vancouver.

Horvat said after the deal that, as late as last summer, he envisioned himself being a Canuck for life. 

Evidently, he’s glad that never came to fruition. 

Instead, Horvat signed an eight-year, $68 million extension to stay on Long Island. 

The Canucks have been a portrait of dysfunction this year, but to hear a player who was their captain say it so plainly will sting for the franchise and its fan base. Vancouver, which is on its way to missing the playoffs, fired coach Bruce Boudreau after a drawn-out ordeal in January, and has made a series of almost comical public relations missteps. 

Vancouver has made the playoffs just once since 2015, and that was in the NHL bubble in 2020. 

By contrast, the Islanders are chasing down a playoff berth. If they are successful, it would make 2021-22 the only season since 2017-18 in which they missed the playoffs. 

Casey Cizikas drew the biggest ovation of an otherwise uneventful third period when he returned to the game following a block on Rasmus Ristolainen that sent him down in a heap. 

After spending a few minutes testing his left leg in the tunnel — initially struggling to put weight on it — Cizikas took a twirl around the ice during a TV timeout, then played three more shifts, including one on which he drew a hooking penalty on Brendan Lemieux. 

“Well he’s a warrior,” coach Lane Lambert said. “We know that. It was a huge block at a pivotal time of the game for us. So he does what he does. And continue to do that.” 

Asked for a status update on Cizikas, Lambert avoided comment. 

Alexander Romanov, who missed a third straight game for the Islanders with an upper-body injury, has yet to begin skating on his own. Mathew Barzal remained out with a suspected knee injury and has not started skating with the team.