How in the world does Bo Horvat have 26 goals already this season when it’s not even 2023 yet?
The Vancouver Canucks captain hit 26 with a two-goal effort against the San Jose Sharks. It’s already the third-highest goal total in his career and only five goals away from his career high of 31, set last season in 70 games.
Horvat is on pace for 63 goals this season. That seemed like something funny to point out when he was on that type of pace early on, like it was something that couldn’t realistically happen, but Horvat is like that bus in that movie that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over 50 mph, and if its speed dropped, it would explode: he’s the guy that couldn’t slow down.
How is he doing it? Is it pure luck? Did he find a magic stick but it’s going to turn out that the magic was within him all along? Did he make a wish on a cursed monkey’s paw and the grave misfortune behind his wish is, well, the rest of the Canucks season?
No, not really — well, maybe a bit of the luck thing, given his sky-high 24.5% shooting percentage. But it’s mostly just hard work.
Over at The Athletic, Thomas Drance wrote an excellent article about how Horvat reinvented his game this past offseason, working with Adam Oates to improve his shot, including changing both the flex and the curve of his stick.
As a result, Horvat has been able to get his shot off more quickly and with more pace, fooling goaltenders more regularly. In addition, the change to his curve has helped him control the puck better, giving him a greater ability to keep his head up and find time and space to use his shot.
Wanting a little bit more insight into the way Horvat has improved his shot this season, I spoke to two of his teammates who are known for having excellent shots: Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser.
“It’s crazy. 26 goals and we’re not even in the new year,” said Boeser. “It’s pretty fun to watch and to be able to play with him, it’s awesome.”
Both Pettersson and Boeser agreed that they have seen the work that Horvat puts in to get better.
“I see him all the time, he keeps working on his shot and his quick release,” said Pettersson. “It’s showing this year. Practice makes perfect, I guess.”
Boeser, however, suggested that the improvement hasn’t been quite as drastic as it may seem.
“Honestly, I feel like he’s always had a good shot,” said Boeser, then added with a grin, “I think his curve was a little ugly.”
Fortunately, Horvat did change that “ugly” curve, which Boeser admitted he hadn’t even noticed but said wasn’t that unusual for someone even at Horvat’s stage of his career.
“I think there’s a lot of guys that tweak things in the summer or at least try,” said Boeser. “I switched mine a couple of years ago and, for the most part, it’s been good. Guys that I skate with, they’re always looking for something.
“I think it depends on the guy. Some guys are really picky about that stuff and then some guys just stick with what works.”
Pettersson is one of the latter, at least when it comes to his stick.
“I changed my curve once when I was still in high school,” said Pettersson, jokingly calling it a dumb decision. “I’ve been playing with the same curve basically my whole career. But Horvat made some big changes, changing the curve and the toe. It seems to be working.”
I saw it working when I watched this game.
- There was definitely a dash of luck in Horvat’s first goal to open the scoring. Boeser set up Ilya Mikheyev in the slot off the rush but his shot was blocked. But then, as Tomas Hertl was backchecking, he accidentally kicked the puck right to Horvat at the side of the net to chip in on the backhand. The puck just keeps finding its way to Horvat at this point, like someone’s soulmate in a Nora Ephron movie.
- Pettersson made it 2-0 later in the first period when his check, Nico Sturm stopped watching him. That was Pettersson’s cue to head to the net, where he was first to a loose puck after Lane Pederson was stopped on the doorstep. With James Reimer stretching across and the puck in tight, Pettersson likely would have shot the puck directly into his glove — instead, he slid the puck through Reimer’s five-hole.
- It seemed like Pettersson almost took offence when Jeff Paterson asked if his five-hole shot was intentional. “What did it look like?” he asked and when it became clear he wasn't going to answer the question, I prompted him, suggesting Reimer had taken away the top of the net with his glove. Pettersson matter-of-factly responded, “So, I shot it underneath him.”
- With J.T. Miller back at centre, Bruce Boudreau hard-matched Miller and Horvat against the Sharks’ top two lines, leaving Pettersson with some easier match-ups. “Petey’s our best offensive player,” said Boudreau. “Sometimes, if you can get the match-up where he’s playing against the 5-6 D, I think it’s an advantage to us.”
- Meanwhile, it was Horvat's line that thrived despite the tougher match-up. All three of Horvat, Boeser, and Ilya MIkheyev scored goals and had multi-point nights. It's fair to say they thoroughly won their match-up against the Tomas Hertl line.
- The Sharks responded on the power play because it wouldn’t be a Canucks game without giving up a power play goal. It was a superb slap-pass by Erik Karlsson to Timo Meier at the back door, taking advantage of Spencer Martin’s aggressive style, as he was out at the top of his crease as Karlsson wound up from the point. You have to wonder if teams are starting to do more pre-scouting on Martin now that he’s not the backup.
- Not that it mattered much. Martin was superb all game, even if he only had to face 26 shots on goal. Some of those shots were fantastic chances off cross-seam passes and Martin still came up with the save. He was particularly good in the third period, where he made 10 of his 24 saves, including an enormous save on Tomas Hertl, diving across when it seemed like the net was wide open.
- “I wish it did,” said Martin when asked about getting his glove on Hertl’s shot, then added with a grin, “It actually hit me in the armpit — don’t check the replay.”
- “He made some crazy saves today,” said Pettersson. “It just brings us a lot of energy.”
- "He played like knew [Collin] Delia played a good game the other night," said Boudreau with a smile. "That's always great to have that little bit of goaltender competition and I thought he was superb, especially in the third period when you know the way this year is with comebacks."
- The Canucks didn’t score on their one power play but sort of did at the same time. At the tail-end of the power play, Conor Garland hobbled defenceman Matt Benning with a wicked wrist shot off the ankle, then Oliver Ekman-Larsson did the same to Logan Couture. So, even when the power play ended, the Sharks were effectively still shorthanded — or shortfooted, if you will — with Benning barely able to move, even as Couture got to the bench.
- Couture going to the bench helped as well. The Canucks quickly countered as penalty killers rushed to get off, giving them lots of room to move into the Sharks’ zone. Andrei Kuzmenko, given plenty of time and space by Benning, spotted Ilya Mikheyev sneaking up the right wing and sent a hard pass through the slot for Mikheyev to insert into the net.
- Mikheyev was flying in this game and finished with four points but his primary assist on the 4-1 goal is a little funny. He barely touched the puck on a fabulous individual effort by Quinn Hughes, tapping a puck that Hughes was already skating onto but on the stat sheet it’ll look the same as a blind, backhand, saucer pass over three sticks.
- Hughes’ first goal of the season was the type of goal that makes you wonder how in the world it was his first goal of the season. First, he darted through two Sharks’ skaters to setup Boeser on the doorstep, but the puck was tipped wide. Hughes kept going, doing a full lap of the Sharks zone, getting enough space from a tight angle to roof the puck on the short side.
- “For me, it’s recognizing when I have those moments,” said Hughes. “When I’m in the O-zone and you can see the other guys are tired, I’m trying to get one or two more of those a game. When you can get the puck one or two times in a shift like that and you’re feeling it, that’s when you can take advantage of different plays. I really wanted to score.”
- It was an incredible goal, but Hughes barely celebrated, instead just shaking his head in disbelief that it took him this long to score.
- “Bo came up to me and asked if I wanted the puck,” said Hughes with a smile. “It’s kinda funny but it’s not funny.”
- You could tell that Hughes was relieved to score but still frustrated that he hasn't been scoring more goals. "Going into the season, I thought I was going to be able to score a bit more with the things I worked on this summer," said Hughes, "so that was weighing on me...That shouldn't happen for me, but at the same time, sometimes you go through a stretch like that. It felt like I was hitting lots of posts and just not getting the result."
- Lane Pederson is looking more and more like an NHL player, with a team-high corsi and xGF% in this game. Sure, it helps that he’s playing with Pettersson and Kuzmenko but he’s keeping up with them and showing a little defensive acumen too. He saved a goal in the second period, preventing the game from becoming 4-2 and perhaps shaking the Canucks’ confidence. Was the puck going wide at the time that Pederson saved it? Sure, but he and his teammates didn’t know that, so we’ll call it a great play anyway.
- Horvat’s second goal of the game was a lot less lucky than his first. Boeser picked off a pass in the neutral zone and sent Horvat in alone and he made no mistake, using his new flex and curve to rifle the puck top corner over Reimer. As Magneto would say, perfection.
- "I don't want to say anything," said Boudreau with a chuckle, with his superstitious side coming out not wanting to jinx Horvat's goalscoring run. "But he's having a pretty good year."
- It wasn’t right that the score was 5-1 in Rogers Arena but for the Canucks, so the Sharks quickly scored to make it 5-2. Luke Schenn and Riley Stillman got caught with enormous gaps on a Sharks zone entry, while Dakota Joshua was standing still and was caught on the wrong side of Meier. Karlsson took advantage of the gap and set up Meier for a one-timer across his body that fooled Martin when he didn’t get all of it.
- Boeser restored the four-goal lead a few minutes later, finding a soft spot in the Sharks’ defensive coverage, where Horvat found him behind the net. It was a quick catch-and-release that Boeser sent flying into the top corner, the type of shot that we used to see from him all the time.
- “When it was rock bottom and I was about to get scratched, I feel like you can only go up from there,” said Boeser, who had a three-point night. “It’s just trying to get the confidence back, playing harder, playing the right way, and trying to help my team win any way I can.”
- For the first time this season, the Canucks are over .500. Yes, they still have more losses than wins but they’ve gotten more than 50% of the available points in their 34 games, which is definitely what people think of when they hear “.500.” It seemed to be a point of pride for the Canucks players, who perhaps feel like they’ve finally overcome their dreadful seven-game losing streak to start the season.
- “To get above .500 now and win three in a row, I think it means a lot to everyone in here,” said Quinn Hughes. “We’ve just got to keep it going because we know that it can change quickly. But I think the way we’re playing right now, we can keep stringing together [wins].”
