![\"Bo](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bo-horvat-14-team-canada-120743085.jpg\")
Bo Horvat of Team Canada takes part during training on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 08, 2026 in Milan, Italy. Getty Images<\/p>\nMILAN \u2014 Bo Horvat never hid how much he wanted to be an Olympian.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019d fetch water bottles if it meant getting to go to Milan.<\/p>\n
What he didn\u2019t say, at least until Wednesday after Canada wrapped up practice one day\u00a0before 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yeah,\u201d he said, when asked whether he doubted himself. \u201cThere\u2019s always \u2014 there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horvat, in truth, wasn\u2019t even the Islander who got closest to making Team Canada a year ago. That would\u2019ve been Noah Dobson, who seemed to start the season with an inside track and then fumbled it away. No one who wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
To make this Olympic team, he needed to up his production significantly from 57 points a year ago, and \u2014 as good as he\u2019s always been for the Islanders in all situations \u2014 make his 200-foot game even better.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth saying, there was nothing particularly wrong with Horvat\u2019s game last year. It just wasn\u2019t quite his standard. And he knew it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t play well enough to make that [4 Nations] team,\u201d Horvat said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horvat improving \u2014 in all those areas \u2014 enough to make one of the most elite rosters in the world came as a direct result of his own determination to do so.<\/p>\n
Bo Horvat of Team Canada takes part during training on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 08, 2026 in Milan, Italy. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you put that much pressure on yourself, it can go either way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Horvat, it went the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can kinda get down on yourself if you\u2019re not playing well,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just being able to be\u00a0mentally strong and kinda come out of that and use it as motivation rather than let it wear you down. That\u2019s kinda what I did this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n
Horvat\u2019s torrid scoring pace early in the season certainly played a major role in elevating him into Team Canada\u2019s conversation. Through 44 games, he\u2019s scored 24 times compared to 28 all last season. But early indications are it\u2019s everything else that coach Jon Cooper will be depending on him to bring.<\/p>\n
Based on Wednesday\u2019s practice, Horvat looks like Canada\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo into his statistics and look at his faceoff win percentage,\u201d Cooper said, by way of explanation. \u201cOn both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bo-horvat-14-new-york-120360371.jpg\")
Bo Horvat of the Islanders celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal during overtime against the Pittsburgh Penguins at UBS Arena on February 03, 2026 in Elmont, New York. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
This is a roster where, as general manager Doug Armstrong put it Wednesday, \u201cthe coach doesn\u2019t have to worry about matching up. We hope to have teams react to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s got no problem with the expectations surrounding Team Canada now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s different parts of your career, of being in the NHL, that pressure\u2019s been on,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing a captain in a Canadian city\u2019s not easy, [Suzuki] can tell you firsthand. This is one of those things where obviously the spotlight\u2019s on you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re part of, supposed to be, one of the best teams in the tournament. There\u2019s always pressure with that. We gotta come here and prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Bo Horvat never hid how much he wanted to be an Olympian.\u00a0 All the way back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[3669,5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,2602,43,2787,31286],"class_list":{"0":"post-455097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-bo-horvat","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-islanders","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-olympics","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-winter-olympics","19":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116055163653235546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}