It had been obvious that a 13-game goalless drought was weighing on Bo Horvat’s psyche.
It was equally obvious that the weight all came off his shoulders at 18:55 of the second period on Saturday, when Horvat finally put the puck in the back of the net — scoring his first goal in exactly a month — and a grin broke out across his face.
If that is what gets Horvat going, it might be the most important takeaway from this 4-3 win over the Hurricanes.
“He’s been joking on me, but I think he missed his shot to be honest. That’s what we were saying after. That’s why it went in,” joked Jean-Gabriel Pageau, whose pass fed Horvat off the rush. “I’m not a goal-scorer [but] when pucks don’t go in and you have chances, it still gets in the back of your mind a little bit. So I can assume for a goal-scorer like him, to get that one goal will definitely feel good. Sometimes it’s the one you need for that confidence to kick back in.”
Horvat had cast a downtrodden figure when he spoke Tuesday night in Montreal, making it plain that he felt scoring was an integral part of his job at which he was failing to perform.
“I understand how he felt,” coach Patrick Roy said. “But at the same time, I was hoping for him just to concentrate on what he can control and it’s the way he plays offensively and defensively. Eventually good things happen.”
That is a common sentiment when players go through scoring droughts, and it’s one Horvat has espoused before during cold stretches.
This one, though, appeared to be beyond that.
Now it is thankfully over.
“I know how that feels sometimes,” captain Anders Lee said. “It feels like hockey’s fun again.”
Roy shook up the forward lines Saturday, with Brock Nelson now centering a top line with Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri on either side.
Horvat skated between Max Tsyplakov and Pageau while Simon Holmstrom was dropped back to the third line on the left wing with Casey Cizikas and Oliver Wahlstrom.
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Matt Martin came back in on the fourth line after sitting for Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Kraken, with Kyle MacLean and Hudson Fasching rounding out the trio.
Dennis Cholowski came back into the lineup in place of Grant Hutton.
Scott Mayfield, who has been on a pair with both, shifted back to his natural right side to play with Cholowski, a lefty.
Roy indicated pregame that the team’s plan is to start Ilya Sorokin on consecutive days Saturday and Sunday with Semyon Varlamov still considered day-to-day due to a lower-body injury.
That, however, could be subject to change.
