It’s been a shade over two months since the Vancouver Canucks traded Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders, but the former captain is already taking aim at his old club.
As the Islanders are in the hunt for a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, they had a huge 4-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.
Following the win Horvat was grabbed by an in-rink reporter, who asked Horvat what the fanbase was like on Long Island. Horvat, meanwhile, took aim at the Canucks:
Host: Two more regular season games. One more here at UBS Arena. How does this rank for you in playoff pushes, the excitement of this building and the fans involvement over the last couple of games?
Horvat: It’s been unbelievable. A lot better than Vancouver, I’ll tell you that for free.
Drafted by the Canucks 9th overall in the 2013 draft, Horvat became the face of the franchise’s transformation out of the Sedin era. He was named an assistant captain the year after the twins retired, and a year after that he was named the 14th captain in franchise history.
Nothing but a good soldier for the team, he scored 201 goals and 420 points in 621 games with the Canucks. Since joining the Islanders, he’s scored seven goals and 13 points in 27 games.
A pending UFA heading into this season, things got rough towards the end of Horvat’s tenure as the two sides were unable to find common ground in contract negotiations. Less than a week after being acquired by the Islanders, Horvat signed an eight-year contract paying him $8.5-million a year.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.