Bo Horvat heads to the ‘hope’ list
HURT AGAINST LEAFS: Young sophomore forward couldn’t skate Sunday, but aims to play against Wild
Bo Horvat made a courageous shot block on the penalty Saturday, came up limping and finished the game. He tried to skate Sunday on his swollen left foot but couldn’t go, and yet he hopes to play Monday.
Hope has become a key word in the vernacular of the Vancouver Canucks.
They hope Horvat, who has 15 points in his last 16 games, can play against the struggling Minnesota Wild. The sophomore centre slid across on his stomach in the second period and absorbed a Morgan Rielly one-time slapper on a twoman advantage during a demoralizing 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
They hope a maintenance day for Dan Hamhuis was no more than that, and that the two absentees from Sunday practice don’t join Alex Edler and Brandon Sutter on the injury list.
And they also hope the sting of Saturday can be replaced by motivation Monday.
After all, Minnesota has lost eight straight and 13 of its last 14, fired coach Mike Yeo following Saturday’s 4-2 home-ice loss to the Boston Bruins and replaced him with AHL affiliate bench boss John Torchetti on an interim basis.
And yet, the Wild are somehow technically ahead of the Canucks in the wild-card race based on wins.
Minnesota’s leading point producer is Mikko Koivu with just 37 (1126) and he was ranked 71st in the league Sunday, so you would hope the Canucks would have a shutdown answer. Yet, even that is a lot of hope for the Canucks, who have yet to string together three straight wins this season, and were spanked 6-2 in Minnesota on Dec. 15.
“If you can’t win three in a row, that’s a problem,” understated winger Daniel Sedin, who opened the scoring against the Leafs Saturday.
“When you get that first goal, you have to realize where you are in the game and bear down and hold on to the lead. They get two quicks ones and all of a sudden we’re down.
“You have to come with an effort level every day and respect the league. That’s the main thing. There are no easy games and if you don’t realize that, you’ve got a problem.”
The Canucks have plenty of problems. They’ve scored just 10 goals in the past six games, are in a 1-for20 funk on the pitiful power play in their last 11 outings, and in a game of musical point men, have replaced the ineffective Yannick Weber on the first unit with the promise of rookie Ben Hutton.
If that isn’t bad enough, they’re two games under .500 at Rogers Arena and instead of being dominating on home ice, they look defeated and deflated. Saturday didn’t help.
“It sure changes the mood quick,” admitted Canucks coach Willie Desjardins. But it’s not just the loss to the Leafs. The Canucks have somehow stayed in the turtle derby playoff race with good goaltending despite Radim Vrbata’s trade value plummeting with one goal in his last 21 games and the top line amassing but four points in the last five games.
When the Leafs scored twice in 17 seconds to erase a 1-0 deficit, the Canucks had no answers against the NHL’s worst club because they’ve won just twice this season when trailing after two periods.
“We’re not going to make the playoffs if we bring the effort we had (Saturday), and that’s the bottom line,” added Daniel. “That’s the one thing you can control in your game.”
And when you’re a retooling club — or whatever ownership or management wants to call it these days — grooming Jake Virtanen, Jared McCann and Hutton on the fly is going to expose expected warts in their games.
Add injuries and inconsistency and you have more of a recipe for tradedeadline drama than the tired mantra of a big push for a playoff position.
“That’s why we are where we are,” said winger Jannik Hansen.
“We haven’t been consistent enough and that’s the tough part of being an average team — you’re going to have average results.”
If Horvat can’t go Monday, it could get interesting. Adam Cracknell was skating between Sven Baertschi and Virtanen at practice Sunday, while McCann was between Alex Burrows and Derek Dorsett. It makes more sense to switch McCann and Cracknell.
Alex Friesen is expected to make his NHL debut on wing with Linden Vey and Vrbata.
It also makes sense to do something with the first-unit power play.
Weber looked indecisive trying to quarterback the four-forward alignment. The Leafs took away the drop pass and the Canucks looked more like a football team with a spread formation in trying to gain the offensive zone. Even that didn’t work.
They also did the dump-and-chase and didn’t retrieve the puck, which was greeted by an expected chorus of boos. They finished 0-for-3 on the power play Saturday and it’s why Hutton will get a look Monday.
“Weber was good on the power play last year and with Edler out, it’s a big loss for us and we felt to keep both units together was the best way to go,” said Desjardins.
“We didn’t have great success and we re-evaluated that today. It was a tough spot for Weber. I liked his character and he gave us what he can, but we’re going to try Hutton and try a few different looks.”
OF NOTE — Jacob Markstrom gets the goaltending start against the Wild. Minnesota will be without defencemen Jared Spurgeon (bone bruise, day-to-day) and Jonas Brodin (foot fracture, injury reserve).