MILAN — Bo Horvat never hid how much he wanted to be an Olympian.
All the way back on breakup day last season, he brought it up as a goal. He went to World Championships with Team Canada to boost his standing and told anyone who asked this fall that he’d fetch water bottles if it meant getting to go to Milan.
What he didn’t say, at least until Wednesday after Canada wrapped up practice one day before its Olympic opener against Czechia, was the impact that failing to make the 4 Nations team a year ago had on that equation, and how much pressure he put on himself to come out strong this year and make it.
“Oh yeah,” he said, when asked whether he doubted himself. “There’s always — there’s ups and downs of seasons. But I think I have a good support staff, my family, everybody around me that keeps me levelheaded and pushes me forward.”
Horvat, in truth, wasn’t even the Islander who got closest to making Team Canada a year ago. That would’ve been Noah Dobson, who seemed to start the season with an inside track and then fumbled it away. No one who wasn’t part of the management group can say with certainty how close Horvat was then, but from the outside looking in, it seemed like the answer was not very.
To make this Olympic team, he needed to up his production significantly from 57 points a year ago, and — as good as he’s always been for the Islanders in all situations — make his 200-foot game even better.
It’s worth saying, there was nothing particularly wrong with Horvat’s game last year. It just wasn’t quite his standard. And he knew it.
“I didn’t play well enough to make that [4 Nations] team,” Horvat said. “I was, honestly, trying to make the Olympic team. I thought that was a realistic goal for me. Just wanted to work towards doing that and growing my game and getting off to a good start. Not only offensively but defensively, killing penalties, that well-rounded game.”
Horvat improving — in all those areas — enough to make one of the most elite rosters in the world came as a direct result of his own determination to do so.
“If you put that much pressure on yourself, it can go either way,” he said.
For Horvat, it went the right way.
“You can kinda get down on yourself if you’re not playing well,” he said. “It’s just being able to be mentally strong and kinda come out of that and use it as motivation rather than let it wear you down. That’s kinda what I did this year.”
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Horvat’s torrid scoring pace early in the season certainly played a major role in elevating him into Team Canada’s conversation. Through 44 games, he’s scored 24 times compared to 28 all last season. But early indications are it’s everything else that coach Jon Cooper will be depending on him to bring.
Based on Wednesday’s practice, Horvat looks like Canada’s fourth-line center between Brad Marchand and Nick Suzuki, the latter of whom is a longtime friend who has skated with Horvat in the offseason for years. With Anthony Cirelli out due to injury, Horvat is in his usual spot on the penalty kill alongside Brandon Hagel.
“Go into his statistics and look at his faceoff win percentage,” Cooper said, by way of explanation. “On both sides.”
This is a roster where, as general manager Doug Armstrong put it Wednesday, “the coach doesn’t have to worry about matching up. We hope to have teams react to us.”
It is also a roster that invites pressure. Anything less than a gold medal for Canada would be treated as utter, total, complete failure. Minor decisions like staying in a hotel instead of the Olympic Village have drawn a firestorm of coverage here in Milan.
Horvat has already embraced the pressure from himself this season. He was captain of the Vancouver Canucks amid a turbulent time for that franchise. He’s got no problem with the expectations surrounding Team Canada now.
“There’s different parts of your career, of being in the NHL, that pressure’s been on,” he said. “Being a captain in a Canadian city’s not easy, [Suzuki] can tell you firsthand. This is one of those things where obviously the spotlight’s on you.
“You’re part of, supposed to be, one of the best teams in the tournament. There’s always pressure with that. We gotta come here and prove it.”
