Rumor: Canucks captain Bo Horvat may be seriously injured.

Although it would take a lot of things going their way in the final 7 games that remain on their regular season schedule, the Vancouver Canucks are still technically in the hunt for a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In theory this means the Canucks are playing their most pivotal games of the season, and unfortunately for the organization and its fans they have lost one of their most pivotal players for those games.

The Canucks announced following Thursday's game against the Arizona Coyotes that Canucks captain Bo Horvat would be sidelined for 2 weeks as a result of a lower body injury, but it now sounds like even that prognosis may have been overly optimistic. In fact it sounds like even if the Canucks were able to make their way into the playoff picture, it could be a scenario in which they would still be without Horvat in the lineup for quite some time.

During Saturday night's National Hockey League broadcast of the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, NHL analyst Jeff Marek shared some of his insights on the Horvat situation.

"Right leg injury for Bo Horvat, originally to be re-evaluated in two weeks although word today we expect that to be longer," said Marek.

"Suffice to say, we all know Bo Horvat, if he is missing games this one is serious," added Marek.

Neither Marek nor his co-host NHL insider Elliotte Friedman would provide any additional details regarding how long Horvat may actually be out, but I suspect we may learn that from the Canucks in the coming days should the team fail to make it into the playoff bracket.

In order to get in the Canucks would have to make up the 7 point lead that the Dallas Stars hold over them in just 7 games, something that will be very difficult to do when you consider that Dallas also has 7 games of their own remaining the regular season schedule. Additionally there is a third team in the mix, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, who currently trail the Stars by only 4 points and have 6 games remaining on their schedule.

It won't be an easy hill to climb for the Canucks, and even less so now that they will be without their captain for what sounds like the long term.