Canucks’ Horvat makes great strides to pick up his game
Horvat takes big strides to make Vancouver forget about Schneider trade
Wherever you happen to see the New Jersey Devils’ logo, Cory Schneider isn’t usually far behind. There he is, on an ad at the airport. There he is, on the cover of the team pocket schedules, available in a couple of stores around the rink. And there he is, in the lobby of a downtown Newark hotel doing what he does best in an image, making a save.
For anyone with ties to the Canucks, the what-ifs are both futile and inescapable. What if the Canucks had moved Schneider after the 2011 season? What if they had bought out Roberto Luongo and kept Schneider? And what if they had drafted Valeri Nichuskin instead of Bo Horvat in 2013?
As spectacularly earthmoving as Schneider-for-Horvat was, and is, the trade has historically been underwhelming in Vancouver, like a thrilling blockbuster devoid of the thrill part. A goalie with elite, superstar potential was traded for a draft pick subsequently used on a “middle-six forward with skating issues” and a city sighed, “just great.”
From that moment following Gary Bettman’s iconic, “I think you’re going to want to hear this,” the trade forever attached a burden to Horvat, one that could have crippled some prospects.
“We’ve talked about this as a family, and it’s what my dad said, ‘You’ll always be known as the player who was traded for Cory Schneider, it will always be with you. It couldn’t just be a normal draft, you had to get traded for one of the best goalies in the NHL,’ ” Horvat said.
But — and this is the greatest what-if of them all — what if the trade is what made Horvat? What if his millstone ends up his blessing, something that is driving him to prove people wrong?
Because no one expected this Horvat, not the one who is 21st in the NHL in even-strength goalsper-hour played, while leading the Canucks in both goals (eight) and points (16) and doing it at 21 years old.
Because no one expected this Horvat, the one who just had one of his best games as a Canuck on Saturday, a tour-du-force that included several self-generated scoring chances and 24 faceoff wins.
And, most importantly, no one saw this Horvat, the one who was among the fastest players in Toronto, one of the league’s fastest teams. Horvat’s speed was impossible to miss in that game, and no one knows how he got it.
“The (speed) difference between (the first time I saw him) in Penticton and now is unbelievable,” his coach Willie Desjardins said. “I wouldn’t believe that was possible. I’ve talked to other players, who are good players, but maybe not quick, and said, ‘You should talk to Horvat and see what he did.’ ”
If they ever did ask, Horvat’s first nod would almost certainly be to the training he’s done power skating. But he’s hardly the first player to try. Dan Hamhuis trained for years without an appreciable change to his skating.
If it were that easy, just take some power-skating lessons, local instructor Barb Aidelbaum would have multiple homes and be driving a Bentley or two.
“Ever since playing minor hockey, people told me I wasn’t fast enough,” Horvat said. “I always heard, ‘Your skating has to better, your skating has to better.’ Even my first training camp, I remember thinking how crazy fast everyone looked.
“(Former Canucks coach John Tortorella) sent me back and told me I had to play with more pace. I’ve kept it in the back of my head, that I would come back and prove people wrong. A lot of people ask me how I did it. I think it’s a lot of the mental game. You have to have this desire to do whatever it takes. It’s about pushing yourself over the limit.”
Is it possible his desire to push harder and harder stems from that day here, when he was traded for Schneider?
“I think you hit the nail right on the head,” Horvat said. “That’s one thing I wanted to do, that’s prove to the fans in Vancouver and prove to the Canucks (front office) that they made the right decision at the time, to take me. Hopefully, I’ve done that.”
More and more everyday.