‘I think he’s soft’: Former Canuck Shane O’Brien takes aim at Bo Horvat once again

Former Vancouver Canucks defenceman Shane O’Brien isn’t going to be applying for a membership to the Bo Horvat fan club anytime soon.

O’Brien spoke candidly on his podcast Missin’ Curfew about the former Vancouver Canucks captain’s comments regarding Vancouver fans after his trade to the New York Islanders. Horvat was asked about the atmosphere in the Islanders’ arena and said “it’s a lot better than Vancouver, I’ll tell you that for free.”

Horvat backtracked his statement the day after, clarifying that he meant no disrespect to the fans.

“I didn’t mean any disrespect to the fans of Vancouver, the teammates or city of Vancouver at all,” Horvat said. “It wasn’t directed at them at all. (Islanders) fans were all excited, and I was excited to be in a playoff push and it was just kind of one of those things where my emotions got the best of me, and I was just really happy to be there.”

But for many fans, the damage had already been done, and it would appear that O’Brien is firmly in that camp as well.

“To me, he was backtracking like a motherf—er. Vancouver fans are the best in the league,” O’Brien said on his podcast a couple of weeks ago. “When you don’t play well, they’re going to give it to you. And that’s their right. But for him to take a shot at the Vancouver fans and the city of Vancouver, come on, Bo. That’s not going to sit well with me, and it’s on you. You didn’t get in the playoffs. You didn’t do s–t when you were there, and I personally think they’re better off without him.”

And during a recent guest appearance on the Cam & Strick Podcast, O’Brien continued making his dislike of Horvat’s post-Canucks comments clear.

“I don’t know Bo Horvat, but my boy Travis Green, who I absolutely love, got fired in Vancouver,” said O’Brien. “Look, if you’re the captain of a hockey club, you sometimes gotta get out of your element if things aren’t going well right? And they were losing and I’d watch Canucks games and Bo would go out there with no emotion, not hit anybody, not do anything, and then that would be it, then he got fired, then Bruce Boudreau got fired.

“To me it was like, hey buddy, you got every opportunity. It didn’t work out for you. Don’t come back at the fans in the city of Vancouver, because that’s a place to me that I love. I love the fans of that city. You know my time there with AV, yeah, sometimes we didn’t see eye to eye, but when it came to the city and the fans, they treated me unbelievable. Like I would go out for dinners, people would come up to buy me drinks like OB this, OB that, it was great to me and I love that city.

“Now Bo, you didn’t get to experience that because you never made the playoffs. Like, that city come playoff time when people are walking around with Vancouver Canucks jerseys on, the flags on the cars, there’s no better place in the world to play and to me, I think Bo Horvat’s soft, I’ll be honest with you, and for him to call out the fans, I was like, settle down bud. It did piss me off”

The Canucks traded Horvat to the New York Islanders ahead of the All-Star Break, where he helped the club reach the playoffs before being eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in six games.