Former Vancouver Canucks captain Bo Horvat and current Canuck Elias Pettersson shared one last skate together as teammates at the NHL All-Star Game on Saturday.
Paired together on the Pacific Division team, Horvat and Pettersson shared a bittersweet moment after the captain was traded to the New York Islanders on Monday after nine seasons with the Canucks.
With Horvat mic'd up on Saturday, he and Pettersson could be heard saying, "One last time?" to each other on the ice.
While the first goal they connected on was disallowed after a challenge by Central Division coach Pete DeBoer, they eventually got a good goal on the board after a 2-on-1 opportunity saw Horvat sauce a pass to Pettersson, who buried it past Connor Hellebuyck.
After the game, which saw the Pacific Division lose 6-4, Horvat spoke to the media about playing with his Canuck teammate one last time.
"It was great. We connected on one there, one that got disallowed which was BS, but it is what it is. It was fun to play with him one last time for now," he said. "We'll see what happens in the future but I mean, it was kind of bittersweet out there. It was a lot of fun."
"It's kind of sad to know that that was gonna be the last time we're gonna skate together, and I'm glad we got to connect on a goal today and get one last shot. I'm gonna miss him a lot. He's a great, great person, great player, and he's gonna do a lot of great things here in the future."
When asked about next steps now that he's an Islander, Horvat expressed his excitement to get going with his new team.
"Enjoy the rest of today and then fly out to Long Island tomorrow, and hopefully I think we're practising and then right out to Philly and jump right into a back-to-back. It's gonna be a crazy couple of days but I'm ready for it.
"I mean to see fans actually have my (Islanders) jersey on already, and it's not even been four or five days. It's pretty crazy. It's humbling. I'm just really fortunate that I'm going to an organization and team with a passionate fan base again like that."
Horvat will play his first game with the Islanders on Feb. 6 when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Centre. He'll face his old team just three days later when New York hosts Vancouver on Feb. 9.
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