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Horvat back, Poolman and Dickinson options as Canucks prepare for Knights

"Feeling a lot better, yeah. Obviously was not a fun 48 hours I would say, but definitely feeling a lot better now": Bo Horvat
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Vancouver Canucks captain Bo Horvat came down with a stomach bug on Wednesday and Thursday, feeling the full force of the illness. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER — Bo Horvat didn’t have much fun this week.

The Vancouver Canucks ­captain came down with a ­stomach bug on Wednesday and Thursday, feeling the full force of the illness.

“Feeling a lot better, yeah,” Horvat said Saturday with a relieved look on his face after returning to practise with his team at Scotia Barn in Burnaby. “Obviously was not a fun 48 hours, I would say, but definitely feeling a lot better now.”

Horvat began to feel off Wednesday afternoon, before that evening’s game against St. Louis. He’d hoped he would feel better but once the game started he realized he was only getting worse

“The most frustrating part is the timing of it all was awful. I felt awful letting down my teammates like that but at the same time I wasn’t going to be any use to them out there and you know, I’d rather get away from them and hopefully not get them as sick as I was,” Horvat said. “I don’t wish that upon anybody. I can’t say I’ve been through that before, where I’ve been sick mid-game.”

At least one teammate did seem to pick up the bug from him as Brad Richardson was absent from Saturday’s practice due to illness.

“Same thing as Horvat the other day,” head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Stomach sickness today. So we don’t want anybody else catching it. So we said ‘stay home.’ ”

Dickinson, Poolman could play against Knights

Tucker Poolman has been out for two months with migraines. Jason Dickinson has been out for six weeks with an injury caused by an awkward crash into the end boards six weeks ago.

Both players have been skating fairly regularly with their teammates of late and were fully involved in Saturday’s practice.

Boudreau said both Poolman and Dickinson were options to play today. Dickinson told reporters after practice he hadn’t expected to be out as long as he was. He was knocked off-balance by Calgary Flames defenceman Erik Gudbranson on Feb. 24, crashing heavily into the boards. He got back up gingerly and went right to the dressing room.

“Honestly I thought I was going to come back that game. I got into the room and I was like ‘yeah, like we’re not calling it yet. Like I’m not getting undressed. I’ll be OK. Just give me a few seconds to get through this initial shock of whatever happened,’ ” Dickinson said. “But things just lingered. It just didn’t progress the way I would have liked. I would skate and then I’d have a setback and then skate and then have a setback. So it was just a battle with time.”

Dickinson wouldn’t say exactly what he hurt: “Obviously hit the wall sliding at a pretty high speed and just hit awkwardly and tweaked some things.”

And like any player, it pained him to watch his team struggle.

“It has been killing me. This time of year you want to be playing, you don’t want to be sitting there watching. Every loss hurts me even more. It just kills me to think that I could be out there doing something and I’m sitting at home just watching.”