Bo Horvat’s injury will be a very tough one for the Vancouver Canucks to overcome.
The Vancouver Canucks have been one of the league’s most surprising teams this year. It seems they’re about to enter their toughest stretch of the season.
With news Bo Horvat could be out up to six weeks with a fractured foot, the Canucks are going to have to find a way to survive without one of their best players. The center was off to a great start to the season with 20 points in 28 games while helping to put Vancouver into a playoff position.
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Holding onto that playoff spot will be awfully tough, as Horvat’s injury couldn’t have come at a worse time. Vancouver’s next 11 games will feature 10 Western Conference teams hovering around a playoff position. Every game will have a significant impact in the standings. On top of that, after those 11 games, the Canucks will head out on a seven-game road trip where the team will change time zones four different times.
Losing one of the team’s best players during this crucial stretch of the season is a devastating loss for a surprising Canucks team. With Horvat cementing his status as a true top-line center and the emergence of rookie Brock Boeser, Vancouver had optimism for the first time in a few years.
Horvat and Boeser had developed great chemistry providing the Canucks with a one-two scoring punch the rest of the league had yet to figure out. Boeser’s team-leading 26 points placed Brock and Bo as the team’s top two leading scorers.
With the loss of Horvat, and nobody capable of replacing him on the roster, teams will now be allowed to focus more on Boeser and the rookie will likely see a reduction in his offensive production.
A top line featuring Horvat and Boeser also took loads of pressure off of the Sedin twins to produce offensively. For years Vancouver seemed to rely on the Sedins to do everything offensively and at this stage of their careers they just aren’t capable of providing what they once were. Yet they seemed to be in a perfect situation slotted in as the second line along with fellow Swede Loui Eriksson.
With Horvat out of the lineup, the pressure that was lifted throughout the year on the Sedins will now return as the Canucks will need the twins if they hope to stay alive in the Western Conference playoff race.
It was only a few weeks ago everything seemed to be going great for Vancouver. Boeser had cemented himself as a legitimate Calder Trophy candidate. Coach Travis Green was the early-season favorite for the Jack Adams Trophy. The Sedins were playing some of their best hockey in years. Sven Baertchi’s 18 points in 28 games seemed destined to shatter his career high of 35 points in 68 games. Even the majority of the Canucks’ offseason acquisitions were contributing as Thomas Vanek seemed to have found the fountain of youth in Vancouver.
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Unfortunately, the pin might have finally popped the balloon on the Canucks’ surprising start to the season with Horvat’s fractured foot, as the league is about to see what Vancouver is made out of. If the Canucks first game without Horvat is any indication, a 4-1 loss at home to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Canucks could be crashing back to Earth in a hurry.