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BEST DRIVE

Bo Horvat is not the most gifted offensive player on this team. He may be the most driven.

He won’t tell you this, not in these words, but he has set out to be the team’s No. 1 centre when Henrik Sedin moves on to the Sedins next chapter.

He wants the pressure to score, the responsibility to lead, and, if all goes right, the glory that comes with it all.

His inner push is as immeasurable as it is remarkable. Horvat finished 2016 leading the team in points, for both the calendar year and the season.

He’s doing it on a third line, with capable if unspectacular wingers. He does have chemistry with them and when asked how Horvat is doing this, Willie first pointed to the line he’s on.

“One, it’s his line. Burr and Baertschi are real good. I think they talk a lot. I think they like playing together,” Willie said. “But you have to give him a lot of credit. Remember when everyone was second guessing him?”

I do.

“Remember them saying how bad he was? How this was wrong and that was wrong.

“He comes to play hard every night. Sometimes, it doesn’t go his way, but he comes hard every night.”

Sometimes in Vancouver, it’s like people wait for the Horvat balloon to pop. It’s hard to shake those first assessments. Future line centre and all that. You’ll hear it again during his next scoring slump.

And maybe he does attempt that toe drag of his a time or two too much. He does need to add to his moves, and he will. Because on this no one can argue, he is squeezing the most out of his talent. Literally no one can explain how is skating has improved so significantly in three years except to say he willed it to happen.