Time for Canucks to pass the torch of leadership to centre Bo Horvat
With sun setting on the Sedins, it’s time for the Canucks to anoint their new captain
This may not be it for the Sedins, but the end is near.
It’s a reality highlighted this week when the Sedins couldn’t give the team an immediate response when pressed on which way they’re leaning — retire, or play one more season.
Henrik was open about wanting to take the rest of the season to decide.
It’s exactly what the Sedins should be doing. Be certain the decision they make — whatever it may be — is the right one for them.
Don’t be rushed. The idea the Vancouver Canucks need to know the twins’ next move to make theirs is flawed and hazardous.
But ambivalence speaks. And one of the things it says is they aren’t the franchise anymore. Not really. They can help. They can guide and mentor and parade their hard work — and they work incredibly hard.
They are not, however, going to be the ones with spades, knee deep in mud trying to dig the organization out of the pit it’s in.
They are not going to lead the Canucks back to relevance. From failing hands, the responsibility will be passed.
The sooner it happens, the better, too.
And a step toward that just may be making Bo Horvat the captain. In a sign of how Horvat is increasingly comfortable with media, he’s leaning back in the Canucks’ locker-room like he’s in his living room holding court with family and friends.
“I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m pretty jacked up top,” Horvat deadpans.
He’s not lying. He’s had loads of time to work on those guns.
Horvat recently spent four weeks in a walking boot, unable to put any weight on the foot he broke in a freak on-ice accident near the boards. Heading into the corner in a Dec. 5 game against the Carolina Hurricanes, his skate hit a rut in the ice.
“I got caught and the way the guy came into me, it put all the weight on my ankle and it exploded, almost like a nutcracker,” he said. “It was freaky. It shouldn’t have happened.”
It hurt, a lot. Horvat went to the medical room, let the injury calm down until the pain started to subside.
He returned to the bench. He was going to play.
“I went out, skated a bit more and was putting pressure on it,’” he said. “I didn’t think too much of it, but there were only five minutes left in the game, so I didn’t want to risk it.”
When he finally took his skate off, the pain progressively got worse. He knew he had to get it checked out. The next day, he found out it was broken.
“I watched all the games, just a ton of hockey. I was trying to pick up on little things, see what everyone does.” — BO HORVAT ON HOW HE SPENT HIS TIME OFF AFTER BREAKING HIS FOOT ON DEC. 5
Would he have played through it if the injury had happened in the first?
“Absolutely,” he said. “You’re so compacted in the boot, you really don’t feel it.
“If it was the second or even early in the third, I would have kept playing.” Damn. “Luckily it did happen when it did, so I didn’t make it any worse.”
Indeed.
To be clear, the Canucks internally know better than anyone if Horvat is ready to be the captain of their team.
What is apparent to plenty of people watching from the outside, however, is the organization needs change.
Their dogged pursuit of trying to build a winning culture as they rebuild is faceplanting again.
For the third straight season, the Canucks are a bottom-five team in the league. They are just seven points up on the Buffalo Sabres, who are buried at 30th overall.
Even if the Sedins come back, will the team risk a four-peat at the bottom of the NHL without something different? Something new?
When Travis Green took over as head coach, he didn’t make much change to the official leadership lineup.
Henrik is wearing the ‘C’ as he has since 2010. His alternates are all veterans, including Daniel Sedin, Chris Tanev, Brandon Sutter, Alex Edler and Michael Del Zotto.
Green has shown his hand all year. He likes his vets. But he also really likes Horvat.
The centre has been his minutes leader up front in time on ice all season. He’s used in every situation, and, generally, as Horvat goes, so go Green’s Canucks.
The Sedins have been significantly marginalized in Green’s world.
Their minutes were cut, something that only changed when both Sutter and Horvat were out of the lineup.
Green’s plan with the twins is not unsound. They are aging and limiting them, in theory, would leave something in the tank at the end of the season.
But as he shifts them to third- and, on some nights, fourth-line players, it becomes more challenging for them to be the true leaders on the team.
There could be some value in having Horvat take over the captaincy as soon as next season.
And if the Sedins comes back, Horvat could use them as sounding boards and sage wise men.
The San Jose Sharks moved on from Joe Thornton as their captain with him still on the team. They not only survived it, they made the Stanley Cup final.
Jonathan Toews was named Chicago’s captain at 20. It represented the dawn of a new era. Horvat turns 23 years old in April. The Canucks’ new era can’t come soon enough.
After missing six weeks in the middle of a season, Horvat skated six times on his own.
He practised once with the Canucks and participated in one game-day skate.
It was then determined he was ready to play.
When you consider he spent four of those weeks unable to put any weight on his foot, it’s pretty remarkable he somehow maintained his fitness at an NHL level.
“We did all the testing and I was right there, if not better than where I was in camp,” Horvat said.
Let that roll around in your brain for a moment. He couldn’t skate or use his leg for a month and his testing was better than where it was in training camp.
Green was asked about this on Thursday.
“It’s great to see, especially from a young guy you’re looking toward the future as being a future leader,” the coach said.
“In his own way, he’s already a leader.”
Do you know what a leader does while trying to kill time when he can’t play hockey in the middle of his season? He does exactly what Horvat did. “I watched all the games, just a ton of hockey,” he said. “I was trying to pick up on little things, see what everyone does.
“I was taking positives from the experience. I was watching how (Brock) Boeser scores goals.”
Some players devour Netflix. Some play video games. Others take trips.
“I would watch the occasional Netflix show, but I was trying to watch as much hockey as I could,” Horvat said. “There are different guys around the league I really like to pick stuff up from.
“Players like Auston Matthews, Jonathan Toews, Anze Kopitar and Patrice Bergeron.
“These guys are having a lot of success and I was out to track the little things they were doing.”
Does that seem like something a captain would do?
Asking for a hockey team.