Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

You’ve heard of the Gordie Howe hat trick, right? But how about the enforcer’s points streak?
“Right now I’ve got a little points streak going, but I know my role and I love my role,” Darcy Hordichuk said.

Hordichuk is on a tear — two goals and three points, and a plus-three to boot, over his past five games — three of them skating with a painful broken bone in his foot.

If it’s not quite a streak in the literal sense of the word — Hordichuk was kept off the scoresheet in two of the five games — it’s a streak of sorts for a guy whose goal total already this season matches his combined total for the past two seasons.

And really, his last game, at Nashville on Tuesday, shouldn’t even count since because of the way the penalties unfolded, he only got onto the ice for 3:09.

A mere four shifts, when he averages about 10 or so.

It’s a shame because he was really looking forward to showing his old employers they made a mistake by not re-signing him. (Plus it’s probably where he and his wife will retire to once hockey’s done, so much did they love his three seasons with the Predators.)

“It’s a long season,” Hordichuk said. “When we go back there in December [for a New Year's Day game] we’ll have our fun again and hopefully I can make an impact.”

Alain Vigneault takes a lot of heat over his trigger-happy penchant for shaking up lines.

The Sedins will likely retire without ever playing a season with a regular right winger again.

But Vigneault’s decision to throw Hordichuk, Jannik Hansen and Moose call-up Jason Jaffray together on the fourth line — to say nothing of putting Steve Bernier with Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler on the third line — has looked so far like a stroke of genius.

“I’m just feeling more confident and getting more comfortable,” said Hordichuk, who set up Jaffray’s first NHL goal of the season. “It’s fun.

“Getting a chance to play with Jaffs, he’s being playing real well, and Jannik, it’s just a different outlook on the fourth line.”

Hordichuk missed two games on the road trip — at Columbus and Detroit — after taking a shot to the laces.

The puck broke his second metatarsal, one of the five long bones in the forefoot which attach to the toes. He wears a protective shield over the front of his left skate and it’s actually less painful to skate than it is to walk (it’s the up-down lifting motion that hurts most).

Doctors have told him it’ll be sometime in mid-January before the bone is fully healed.

“When you’re skating you’re pushing off sideways,” he said, “except sometimes when you’re turning you can really feel it.

“But I’ve doubled my goals from last year already, so that’s not a bad thing. It’s funny that I’ve played some of my best hockey with a broken foot.”