It marks the second-fastest Horvat has scored 12 goals in his career, as he buried 12 in 13 games to start the season with Vancouver in 2022-23. Horvat scored 0.62 goals per game in the 2022-23 season, but so far, Horvat’s averaging 0.75 goals per game this season.
With over 800 NHL games under his belt, Horvat’s longevity stands out and he used this offseason and training camp to fine-tune the details of scoring and skating.
“I focused on the goal-scoring aspect of things,” Horvat said. “Burying my opportunities in practice and finding different ways to score goals. It’s been working so far this year, also trying to be explosive in my skating.”
Head Coach Patrick Roy said that Horvat’s strong defensive game translates to more opportunities to score.
“What I love about Bo is that he plays a 200-foot game,” Roy said. “When you do a lot of good things defensively, you don’t spend as much time in your zone. It gives you more opportunity offensively, we scored goals off the rush because we were good in the neutral zone.”
Horvat opened the scoring off the rush in Saturday’s 5-0 win over the New York Rangers. With Emil Heineman carrying the puck, Horvat raced alongside him into the Rangers zone, cognizant to stay onside. Horvat stayed ready for the dish and snapped a quick release past Igor Shesterkin.
“We’ve been connecting on a few two-on-ones recently,” Heineman said. “I think that one against the Rangers, it was a good stretch by him to stay onside. We’ve been keeping it simple too, not trying to do too much off a two-on-one, maybe get one pass and then as shot.”