Nathan Horton's situation to have major significance in Boston Bruins succeeding or failure -NHL Update
Boston Bruins can easily be seen as being a team that is focusing on shifting from the need of having to depend purely on goaltending and its defensive line-up, to now wanting more out of the offensive department for the upcoming 2012-2013 National Hockey
League (NHL) regular season.
Nathan Horton is a major factor that will obviously decide whether Boston Bruins have a successful season or will fall short again of expectations like they were eliminated in the opening round of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a year after winning the championship
against Vancouver Canucks.
The biggest issued faced by the right winger was the reoccurring concussion symptoms that had him playing just half of the season, but now, hopefully, those issues will not arise again and Horton can get back to performing full time.
"The start of the season, definitely the concussion was an issue," Horton told ESPNBoston.com earlier in January. "I definitely wasn't myself and didn't feel the way I wanted to. It wasn't, like I said then, like post-concussion syndrome or something like
that I think, but more me just trying to get my timing and confidence back and, yeah, maybe being a bit hesitant with my physical game. It was definitely tough, but as the team started to win, and in like November and into December, I felt better, and I feel
much better now."
Last season, Horton had 32 points (17 goals, 15 assists) in 46 games played while being a player that had average 50-plus points each season during the ones before. In total, the 27-year-old has 380 points (185 goals, 195 assists) in 548 games played.
Boston Bruins had made the announcement back in July that Horton has been cleared for contact by the team’s medical staff and fortunately, he is ready to get back on the ice and play some primetime hockey.
With Tim Thomas now out of the scene, players like Nathan Horton and Tyler Seguin will have to step up their game so that Tuukka Rusk can get acquainted in the goal as a main net minder while the offence leads the team.
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