Canucks compete against Horvat, Islanders for 1st time since trade

NEW YORK -- J.T. Miller heaps praise on Bo Horvat, calling him a good friend, an even better guy, a great leader and a huge part of the Vancouver Canucks for nearly a decade.

But Miller will put that friendship and all the niceties aside when he looks for Horvat on the ice at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, on Thursday.
"I'm just going to try to run him if I get the chance because I know he's going to want to do that too," Miller, the Canucks forward, said before a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. "I think it's going to bring humility to the situation. If I get a chance, I'm going to hit him as hard as I can. We're going to enjoy competing against each other."
Miller and the Canucks played against Horvat, their former captain and now New York Islanders center, for the first time Thursday.
It was 10 days ago when Horvat was traded from the Canucks to the Islanders on Jan. 30 for forwards Anthony Beauvillier,
Aatu Raty
and a conditional first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. Horvat signed an eight-year contract with New York on Sunday.
Horvat was Canucks captain from the start of the 2019-20 season until the trade.
"I'm not even going to think about it during the day because it doesn't feel real," Vancouver defenseman Quinn Hughes said. "It's going to feel weird for him for sure."
Horvat played 621 games with the Canucks and had 420 points (201 goals, 219 assists) after being a first-round pick (No. 9) at the 2013 NHL Draft. He is their leading goal-scorer this season with 31.
"When I have a face-off against him, we're probably just going to laugh at each other because two weeks ago we were teammates," Vancouver center Elias Pettersson said. "It's business. Of course, he's always going to be a friend, but I'm going to try to play my hardest against him and bring my best effort. He's going to do the same thing. He's going to hit me when he can and I'm going to try to hit him. We both are competitors, so I expect nothing but a hard game against him."
Pettersson was with Horvat at 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend and got to play with him there for the Pacific Division, even though Horvat had already been traded. He saw Horvat in an Islanders jersey there

But Miller saw Horvat in an Islanders jersey for the first time Tuesday, when he was watching highlights and saw his former teammate score his first goal with his new team in a 4-0 win against the Seattle Kraken.
"I watched the highlight and I'm like, 'Man, it looks so crazy,'" Miller said.
It will look that way to him live in person too.
"Try our best to stay focused, but there's going to be moments that you can't really believe what you're looking at, him wearing No. 14 over there," Miller said. "We spent every single day together and a lot of time away from the rink on the road.
"The more we treat it to play hard, go at it, maybe not talk at all and go say hi afterwards, I think that's better for both of us."
Maybe that's good advice for Beauvillier, because he too will have a weird feeling Thursday, though nobody is wearing his old No. 18 in New York as of yet.
A first-round pick (No. 28) by the Islanders at the 2015 NHL Draft, Beauvillier knew he was returning quickly after the trade, so he packed lightly. He said his parents and girlfriend would meet him at the Canucks' hotel Thursday to give him more clothes from his home on Long Island.
"It was a weird packing situation, trying to pack light for this road trip and trying to pack heavy for the rest of the season," Beauvillier said. "I've got to get some clothes."
Beauvillier played 457 games for the Islanders and had 209 points (102 goals, 107 assists) for them since debuting in 2016-17. He scored arguably the biggest goal for the franchise in decades, in overtime for a 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Semifinals.
"Every time I start thinking about it, I don't really let myself do it, Beauvillier said. "I'll just try to enjoy the moment. It's the first time I'm going to go through this. It's going to be great to see everyone one last time and then turn the page.
"It's kind of a blessing in disguise that I get to turn the page that quickly. It will be fun, I think."