Forgive me with this post and a couple of illusions to music from the past (the title is from the 1962 song “The Monster Mash” by Bobby Pickett). Living on Vancouver Island, it’s a requirement to be a Vancouver Canucks fan and I am. So, perhaps it’s just the happiness of seeing this team – one that few people thought had a chance to make it into the postseason – actually succeed is the reason for the music.
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What About the Leadership of Horvat?
The Canucks Bo Horvat led his team to an exciting Game 4 victory as well as a decisive four-game series win over the Minnesota Wild. During the series-deciding Game 4, Horvat scored a goal and had two assists in Friday’s 5-4 overtime win.
It was for Horvat a monster of a game and he carried his part of the team from start to finish. He had earlier assisted on goals by Tanner Pearson and Brandon Sutter, but when he scored the Canucks’ fourth goal at 14:14 of the third period that was a crushing blow to the Wild.
With that goal, Horvat was able to extend the game to overtime and set the stage for Chris Tanev’s innocent-looking point shot that snuck through everyone to find the twine 11 seconds into the extra period to secure the comeback victory.
You can see some of the team chemistry with this short clip of the team mobbing Tanev in the dressing room after the game.
What Does This Series Win Mean for Horvat?
Horvat has been a leader throughout these Stanley Cup qualifying games. The 25-year-old captain finished the play-in series with two goals and five points in the four games. He was all over the ice and showed why the organization was wise to name him the team’s captain. He can carry a team in more ways than one.
For Horvat, you can tell from the way he talks that not making the playoffs weighs heavily on him. Although he’s happy to see how far the franchise has come, as they advanced to the round of 16 after Friday’s win, it seems there might be more to it than that.
As Horvat put it, “This franchise has been through a lot. These last four years, not making the playoffs, we’ve taken it to heart. We wanted to come out and prove ourselves, play hard. We have a great group of guys here, and to finally get a playoff win under our belt in a playoff series, it definitely feels great, but we’ve got a lot more work to do.”
Finally, the Playoffs
It isn’t as if the Canucks haven’t had playoff success; it just hasn’t been recent success. They were one a single win away from capturing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2011, but they blew a 3-2 series lead. Since then, the organization has only made the playoffs three times during the last eight seasons. Furthermore, they haven’t got past the first round of the postseason since they drafted Horvat in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft (9th overall).
And Horvat, who this season was named the team’s captain, has been front and center in the Canucks’ rebuild. He not only because the official team leader this season as captain, but since his rookie season he’s led the team with 446 games played, 120 goals, and 275 points.
The Building of Team Chemistry
Horvat was quick to point to the Canucks Swedish goaltender Jacob Markstrom as one of the biggest reasons for the Canucks’ regular-season success in 2019-20 and their qualifying series win. Horvat noted that Markstrom has “been a brick wall for us all year … he’s been our rock ever since Day 1, and we wouldn’t be in this position right now without him.”
Horvat’s correct. Markstrom played great during all four games – well, perhaps there are a couple he’d want back during Game 4. In fact, during Game 2 he was shaky only near the end and the final score didn’t reflect his dominance. He was pretty much dominant the entire postseason.
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The Canucks Are Ready to Get Rid of the Blues
St. Louis is the reigning Stanley Cup championship team; however, the Canucks actually played well against them this season and took at least a point in every game.
It will be interesting to see if last season’s Calder Trophy controversy rears its ugly head during this season. Canucks fans remember well that the Blues’ young goalie Jordan Binnington called out the choice of Elias Pettersson as the Calder winner saying he should have won it. No doubt someone other than myself will chorus this theme during the upcoming series.
Should the Canucks beat Binnington and the Blues (the Elton John song “Binny and the Blues” comes to mind) in this series, it will go a long way towards settling that controversy.
