Horvat might not shoulder workload until opener
Is Bo Horvat a marked man? The Vancouver Canucks centre led his club in scoring last season, played in his first AllStar Game and landed a sixyear, US$33 million contract extension this month.
That gets you noticed and put in the competitive crosshairs.
So what does Horvat make of a late-game board hit from Los Angeles Kings defenceman Drew Doughty on Sept. 21 in China that resulted in a left-shoulder stinger? Lingering soreness may keep Horvat sidelined until the club’s opener Oct. 7 against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Arena.
“I don’t think I’m a marked man, but he (Doughty) plays the game hard,” Horvat said after practice Wednesday. “Everybody plays to win and I’m going to have to expect that. He didn’t say anything and we kind of met up after the game. He didn’t know about it (injury) because it seemed like such an innocent play and he just kind of caught me in an awkward spot.
“He apologized.”
Judging by Horvat’s rehab report, it doesn’t sound like he’ll play Thursday here against the Calgary Flames or Saturday in the pre-season finale against the Edmonton Oilers.
“There’s no timeline,” he said. “It’s day-to-day and I want to be ready for Game 1 and if that means sitting out the next two and being 100 per cent to get back into it, that’s what I’ll do. The main thing is soreness. I have strength and mobility in my upper body.
“You don’t want to push things too hard in the pre-season and re-injure it.” n OVERTIME — Featured forward lines against the Flames are Sven Baertschi-Markus Granlund-Brock Boeser; Sam Gagner-Alexander Burmistrov-Jake Virtanen; Scottie Upshall-Brandon Sutter-Derek Dorsett. Injured centre Cole Cassels is sidelined three to four weeks while PTO candidate Ryan White skated on his own Wednesday after sustaining a concussion last week.