Bo Horvat captained the Vancouver Canucks for four years before he got traded away to the New York Islanders.
And although he doesn’t play with a C or an A on his chest in New York, he’s still a leader on the ice.
In a recent game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Isles’ star player Mat Barzal was caught with a questionable hit from Maple Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit.
Bo Horvat stepped up and dropped the mitts with Benoit, for which he earned praise from fans and coach Patrick Roy, who called him an ’eagle.’
But not everyone is a fan of how Horvat acted. In the NHL, there’s a thing called ”The Code,” which basically says that if you take down a star player, you should answer the bell when someone comes after you to retaliate.
But now, NHL insider Ken Campbell absolutely blasts Horvat and The Code.
”Once again, so the people in the back can hear it. The NHL Code™ on the ice, whatever that is, makes no sense,” wrote Campbell in The Hockey News.
Campbell claimed that the hit from Benoit was clean and that Horvat put his team in a vulnerable position for fighting him, as he earned an unsportsmanlike penalty, which ended an Islanders power play.
”Well, here’s the thing. Benoit barely made contact with Barzal, grazing him at best. So now players who even try to hit star players have to fight? In this case, it was Bo Horvat, who just happens to be one of the Islanders’ best players. And by picking a fight with Benoit, he earned an unsportsmanlike penalty and ended an Islanders power play. The Maple Leafs scored on the ensuing 4-on-4.”
Ken Campbell also claimed that if the NHL wants to be tougher and more physical, they should be allowed to make clean hits.
”Well, if you want more physicality, perhaps it’s time to stop going after players who are guilty of nothing more than throwing a bodycheck,” he wrote.
Do you agree with this take?
