Being centre of attention big challenge for Horvat
Canucks have to put team’s best player in position to focus on producing offence
I wanted to be at the top of the lineup. You want to be that one-two guy. At the same time, starting me there, pushed me to be better.
If life as a typical National Hockey League player seems difficult, then life as a No. 1 centre must seem like colonizing Mars.
Consider for a moment the job. At the top, make sure to produce offence at even strength. You know, score goals. Oh, and have the puck a lot.
When you don’t, keep busy either shutting down the best scorers in the world or fending off the best defensive centres.
Also, if it’s not too much trouble, can you score on the power play, kill penalties, and win most of your faceoffs? Welcome to Bo Horvat’s world. There is nothing about Horvat that suggests he’s still a “kid.” He’s filled out physically. He’s accountable. And he’s mature enough that, if you met him and he told you he had kids in college, you’d believe it.
So, it often gets lost that Horvat is just 21 and the Canucks’ youngest regular. He’s also currently their No. 1 centre. Yes, he has arrived. You know this because opposing coaches are changing the way they defend him.
Tuesday, Joel Quenneville assigned Jonathan Toews as the Horvat match. Toews won 62 per cent of his faceoffs and helped the Chicago Blackhawks control 72 per cent of the shot attempts when he was on the ice at even strength.
It’s tough at the top. Todd McLellan thought similarly in Edmonton Saturday, matching what has been his shutdown line, the one centred by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, with Horvat.
“He’s getting those tougher matchups on his own. I don’t need to try and get them for him,” head coach Willie Desjardins said.
“He’ll draw one of the top two lines always now, either a really good checking line or he’ll get the top offensive line.
“It’s just the way he plays. Teams know that now. They know it’s a line they have to look at controlling.
“For example, I was hoping to play the Horvat line against Connor McDavid (in Edmonton), but they didn’t want that match, so we had to change our lines up a little bit.”
It hasn’t been easy. Horvat has gone seven games without a goal, tying his season-long goalless stretch and is controlling just 43 per cent of shot attempts in March.
But this experience is exactly what the final few weeks of the season should be all about. Elevating Horvat actually has a chance to have long-term impact, something playing guys like Michael Chaput and Reid Boucher will not.
Horvat is playing more than he has all season. He’s seeing three to four more minutes a game now than he was in October. That was when he debuted on the fourth line.
This, after leading the Canucks in points in the second half of 201516. It was unbelievable, really.
Looking back, it was one of Desjardins’ most indefensible lineup decisions. It also may have been a stroke of evil genius. Either that, or just luck.
But Desjardins’ decision motivated Horvat in what has been a pretty great year that, if things stay the same, will end with him leading this team in points.
“Obviously, I wanted to be at the top of the lineup. You want to be that one-two guy,” Horvat said.
“At the same time, starting me there, pushed me to be better.
“It’s what lit the fire and a reason why I’ve had a good year.”
Having a good year is one thing, but this next step, the one with Horvat trying to establish himself as a No. 1 centre, is one of the steepest.
He’s got a ton on his plate, something that was clear in the Chicago game, during which he had to kill penalties for 4:38. That’s draining, especially when he’s trying to keep his head above water while battering horns with Toews for much of three hours. Does it ever seem like too much? “It is a lot,” Horvat said. “At the same time, as a hockey player, you want to have all of those responsibilities. You grow up seeing a lot of players on other teams with those responsibilities.
“Toews has them. (Anze) Kopitar has them. (Patrice) Bergeron has them. All of these great centremen can do all of these things, so that’s what I want to be able to do.”
The one area that’s been the most challenging for Horvat has been killing penalties. Ideally, it would be great to give Horvat a break from that so he can focus on the offence. He basically spent 24 per cent of his game short-handed Tuesday.
That’s not the way to get the most out of him.
But right now, what choice does Desjardins have? To hear him tell it, not much.
“We’re missing six or seven penalty killers since the start of the year, including the guys who got traded,” Desjardins said.
If I’m the Canucks, I’m looking for someone this summer who can kill penalties, and I’m doing everything I can so that Horvat can focus on putting up points.