Travis Konecny ready to ‘boss’ cousin Bo Horvat around in Horvat’s first game as an Islander

Monday night’s game against the New York Islanders will serve as a family reunion for the Flyers’ Travis Konecny and newly acquired Islanders forward, Bo Horvat. The pair are second cousins on Konecny’s mother’s side. While Horvat spent the first eight and a half seasons of his career in the Western Conference playing for the Vancouver Canucks, he was dealt to the Islanders on Jan. 30, just days before the NHL All-Star break.

Horvat’s first game in an Islanders uniform will be a matchup he says both players have been anticipating.

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“[Konecny] actually texted me right away ... he circled the calendar and sent me the picture of the screenshot of it, and I just said, ‘I can’t wait,’” Horvat said after the trade while at the All-Star game.

According to Konecny, though, he’s received some ribbing in the Flyers’ locker room for the calendar text.

“I actually thought about denying it and saying I didn’t do it just to make him look stupid, because I read it,” Konecny said on Sunday. “I literally just drew a circle and sent it to him. And it was very small, but yeah, all the guys were hanging quotes around the locker room today, chirping me. It was pretty funny.”

Konecny, 25, and Horvat, 27, both grew up near London, Ontario, though they didn’t spend much time together in their youth. As they got older and became more serious about hockey, though, they started to work out together. They played against each other for the first time in junior hockey, when Konecny played for the Ottawa 67′s and Horvat was with the London Knights of the OHL.

Though Konecny now spends his offseason training in Calgary, he said the cousins used to spend summers training together.

Now that they both play in the Metropolitan Division, it looks like the cousins will be regular opponents for a while. On Sunday, the Islanders locked up the former Canucks captain to an 8-year contract extension worth a reported $68 million. Horvat’s 31 goals are currently tied for the seventh-most in the NHL.

“[Horvat] was scoring there, for a while, every game, and he’s been doing a great job,” Konecny said. “And, now he’s on a team where they’re looking to use him and push for the playoffs. Good for him. But we’re not cheering for him, I’ll tell you that.”

The Flyers have two games remaining against the Islanders this season, including Monday’s home game and a trip to UBS Arena on April 8. They’ve gone 1-1-0 against the Islanders this season.

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Though Konecny has in the past credited his trademark feistiness to his mother, he doesn’t think Horvat has that particular gene: “I’ll be bossing Bo around out there tonight,” he said.

Forward Wade Allison will be back in the lineup tonight after missing one game with an upper-body injury. Allison left the ice early after blocking a shot in the Flyers’ Jan. 26 loss to the Minnesota Wild, and sat out their 4-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 28. The 25-year-old had previously been sidelined for five weeks this season with a hip injury sustained in November.

“It’s just like, [expletive]. Again?” Allison said initially regarding his most recent injury.

The All-Star break was a welcome opportunity for Allison to recover without missing any more time with the team.

“I just tried to spend some time healing and just take care of the body and make sure that when we come back here and we get going again, that I’m ready to go,” he said.

Goalie Carter Hart (15-14-8, .911 save percentage) will get the start in net against the Islanders (7 p.m.), according to Flyers head coach John Tortorella. While Allison centered the fourth line in practice Sunday, Tortorella anticipates he will be back on the wing Monday night, though the coach has not yet finalized the Flyers’ lines … Tortorella said the Flyers played their “best month of hockey in January,” and the team will be looking to recapture that momentum coming out of the All-Star break.