Bo Horvat is the captain of the Canucks. The fact that he doesn’t wear the ‘C,’ is immaterial. He plays like the captain. He carries himself like the captain. He talks like the captain.

With the Yuletide season now upon us, here are the holly and jolly Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports:

• Back in a time when you could have meaningful conversations with the people you cover, then-Calgary Flames coach Darryl Sutter riffed on the concept of leadership.

Sutter said the locker-room, not management or coaches, determines the team’s leaders. It doesn’t matter if the player is wearing a letter. Everyone in that room knows who to follow.

Which brings us around to Bo Horvat.

Horvat is the captain of the Vancouver Canucks. The fact that he doesn’t wear the ‘C,’ is immaterial. He plays like the captain. He carries himself like the captain. He talks like the captain.

The way he’s performing during the Canucks’ most recent troubles only reinforces his standing on the team. He’s playing over 20 minutes a night. He takes every conceivable faceoff. His wingers are, basically, Anthony Scaramucci and Robert Mueller, but he still leads the Canucks in scoring.

The organization, in fact, has been derelict in not providing Horvat with someone, anyone who can complement his skill-set. This is the same organization that leans on him to an absurd extent, but has yet to acknowledge what everyone already knows.

Still not sure what the reasoning is there. Hockey men talk about the need for structure and definition on a young team and the Canucks have the ideal player to lead them forward in uncertain times.

That’s a testament to Horvat. It’s just troubling that the organization hasn’t recognized what is obvious to everyone else.