Horton played through the pain of his shoulder injury, which he initially suffered early in the postseason and had aggravated on a hit by Tampa's Nate Thompson in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final. Horton still finished that game, and finished off the Lightning with the game's only goal late in the third period of a 1-0 win.
He wasn't able to shake off the effects of Aaron Rome's late hit in Game 3 of the Cup Final, however, and was forced to watch the final four games of Boston's first championship run in 39 years.
"It's not always fun to be injured, but you're in the Stanley Cup Finals and you're playing the playoffs, that's what people do in the playoffs," Horton said at the club's breakup day at the Garden on Sunday. "They play through injuries and we definitely had a lot of guys on our team with injuries. But being injured again with a concussion, it was tough to watch but it was such a good feeling when we won. I felt like I was on the ice no matter what. We have such great teammates, and injuries happen during the playoffs and just to be part of it and to be part of a team when you're not playing, I felt like I played Game 7. So it's a good feeling."
The Bruins felt even better about how Horton's game progressed over the course of his first season in Boston and the character he showed in trying to play through the injuries he suffered in the playoffs.
"Not only do you people learn a lot about Nathan because of that, but so did we as an organization," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "When you bring someone like that in and as the season goes on you see how he changed. And I don't know if you have noticed, but to me he became more and more of a consistent player in the second half and [was more] physical and emotionally engaged. And I thought he really grew as a player this year with us, and that just carried over into the playoffs. And that's why there was no way you were going to keep him out of the lineup, even with that shoulder separation."
Horton said that the shoulder will heal on its own over the offeseason and shrugged off playing through the pain of it as being anything special.
"I don't need surgery," Horton said. "It's not just me, everybody played through injuries. That's what you have to do if you want to win the Cup.
"Most hockey players, not all of them, but most if you get hurt in the playoffs you just play through it," Horton added. "Obviously it doesn't feel good, but you just play through it. That's it."
Julien gave Horton some time off from practice to ease the strain on the shoulder, but there wasn't any way he was going to keep him out of any games.
"Right from the playoffs, I can't tell you exactly when, but it was mostly for the whole playoffs he was playing with a pretty severe shoulder separation," Julien said. "That's why sometimes you wouldn't see him in practice and a lot of times when we did some drills, guys knew not to hit him and that kind of stuff. But you weren't going to hold him back. With that shoulder and even when he had the concussion, he wanted to play so badly in Games 6 and 7, which we all knew from the other side medically it was totally impossible and it would have not been a wise move at all to make. But he wanted to play. He didn't care. He was going to play through anything."
Head injuries are a different matter. Horton couldn't play through the concussion he suffered in the Final, but is feeling better now and doesn't expect any long-term effects from the hit.
"I'm fine, I don't have any headaches right now," Horton said. "I'm kind of just relaxing. I don't have any symptoms and I've been that way for a few days now."
Horton stated that the headaches were the only symptom he suffered from the concussion, which was the first of his career.
"I never had one before," Horton said. "I mean I fell off the monkey bars and stuff as a kid, but nothing like that before. It just happens. It's bad timing, but hockey's physical and that's how it went."
Timing is critical now as well, as Horton will take his time to make sure he is fully healed before pushing himself to get ready for next year.
"I think right now just take some time off," Horton said. "It was a long year, a long playoff. You don't want to start up too early and be drained so I think I'll just take the right amount of time off and get ready for another long one, because we definitely have a great team here for a long time."
