The History of the Washington Capitals(Est. 1973)
NICKLAS BACKSTROM--UNDERRATED SUPERSTAR
Lars Nicklas Bäckström has gone on to become Washington's all-time franchise leader in assists. Bäckström was drafted fourth overall by the Washington Capitals at the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, but announced on 10 July 2006, that he would wait a year before leaving Sweden to play in the NHL. His selection made him the fourth-highest drafted Swede, after Mats Sundin (first), Daniel Sedin (second) and Henrik Sedin (third). (Victor Hedman, however, was later picked second in 2009, and Gabriel Landeskog and Adam Larsson were the second- and fourth-overall picks, respectively, in 2011.)
In his third and last season with Brynäs, in 2006–07, Bäckström’s development had continued, and he saw improvements in points (12 goals and 28 assists) despite playing in one less game than the previous season. He also improved in post-season play, and was able to record six points (three goals three assists) in seven playoff games.
On May 21, 2007, Bäckström signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Capitals to begin playing during the 2007–08 season. His development and impressive play led some, such as HockeysFuture.com, which ranks NHL prospects, to consider him the most talented Swedish prospect in recent history. Drawing comparisons to Peter Forsberg, he was noted primarily for his vision, passing and ability to maintain possession of the puck in traffic. For these reasons, he was expected to be a catalyst on the team's power play, and his defensive prowess and puck movement would make him an equally valuable asset when short-handed. On 5 October 2007, he scored his first NHL point, an assist on a goal by fellow Swede Michael Nylander, against the Atlanta Thrashers. While Bäckström was decent early in his first season, still adjusting to the smaller ice rinks of North America, his season rapidly improved once an injury to centre Michael Nylander promoted him to Washington's first line. Playing alongside Alexander Ovechkin, Bäckström set NHL and team records while helping Ovechkin win the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy.
NICKLAS BACKSTROM CAPITALS STATS
ASSISTS: 450 (1st)
POINTS: 728 (4th)
GOALS: 188 (8th)
POWER PLAY GOALS: 58 (7TH)
Playing on the Capitals' top line, Bäckström would finish his rookie campaign with 69 points (14 goals and 55 assists), with three goals and 22 assists on the power play. For his play, he was named runner-up to the Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane for the 2007–08 Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the League's top rookie of the season (Kane had 1,087 votes to Bäckström's 872). The Blackhawks' other star rookie, Jonathan Toews, placed third in votes with 647. Despite missing out on the award, Bäckström was named to the All-Rookie Team along with Kane and Toews.
In his second NHL season, 2008–09, Bäckström would go on to lead both the Capitals and all Swedish NHL players with 66 assists, also adding 22 goals, for 88 total points, placing him within the top ten NHL scorers for the year. Bäckström would again prove to be a force in the Stanley Cup playoffs, tallying 15 points in 14 games as Washington eventually fell to the future Stanley Cup champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Following the 2009 playoffs, Bäckström was awarded the Viking Award as the top Swedish-born player during the 2008–09 season. He became only the second Capital to ever win the award, following Calle Johansson, who won the award in 1991–92.
At the conclusion of the 2009–10 regular season, Bäckström finished fourth in NHL scoring with 101 points, behind Henrik Sedin (112), Sidney Crosby (109) and teammate Alexander Ovechkin (109). Bäckström scored his first career Stanley Cup playoff hat-trick, including the overtime game-winner, against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the 2010 playoffs, a series Washington ultimately lost in seven games. On 17 May, shortly after the end of the Capitals' season, Bäckström signed a ten-year, $67 million contract extension with the team.
At the conclusion of the 2010–11 season, Bäckström scored 65 points, his lowest single-season point total in the NHL.
On 17 April 2012, Bäckström received a one-game suspension for a cross-check to the head of Boston Bruins forward Rich Peverley.
During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Bäckström played for Dynamo Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). On 18 October 2012, he signed with the Russian club, with whom his linemate Alexander Ovechkin had also signed for, for the duration of the 2012–13 lockout. Bäckström later returned to finish third in the NHL with 40 assists during the shortened 2012–13 season.
During the 2014–15 season, on 13 December 2014, Bäckström scored his first regular season NHL hat-trick in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.[8] On 15 March 2015, in a game against the Boston Bruins, he became the Capitals' all-time franchise leader in assists, surpassing both Alexander Ovechkin and Michal Pivoňka after recording two in the game. Bäckström finished the season leading the NHL with 60 assists, including 33 on Ovechkin's League-leading 53 goals; Bäckström also finished the year with 78 points, sixth-best in the NHL. On 27 May, Bäckström had successful arthroscopic hip surgery, with Capitals management expectant of a full recovery prior to the beginning of the 2015–16 season, during which he recorded 20 goals and 50 assists as the Capitals were the best team overall during the regular season, while also played His first All-Star Game.
Nicklas Backstrom gets no attention, and it’s all his fault
Can we start with the following premise, please? In the middle of his 10th NHL season, Nicklas Backstrom is underrated. Actually, fix that. He’s criminally underrated.
We consider the Capitals center such a fixture here in Washington — where he is predated only by Alex Ovechkin and Ryan Zimmerman among pro athletes — that such a claim might seem silly. Yet marry the following: Since Backstrom entered the league in 2007-08, only six players have scored more points. Those players have combined for eight Hart Trophies as the league’s MVP, 15 first-team all-NHL nods, seven second-team all-NHL appearances and 29 invitations to the NHL All-Star Game.
Backstrom’s baubles over that time: one NHL All-Star Game, which came last year. Oh, and he once came in 10th in the voting for the Selke Trophy as his league’s top defensive forward. So that’s nice. Backstrom’s mantel back home in Gavle, Sweden, must hold only candlesticks and picture frames.
How is that possible?
“You’re asking the same question I’ve been asking forever,” Caps defenseman Karl Alzner said.
Perhaps the rest of the league doesn’t see him as we do, right here in Washington, where Ovechkin has explosively been converting Backstrom’s quietly brilliant passes into goals for an athletic lifetime. It’s worth asking around.
“The way he passes, the way he sees the ice, the way he thinks the game is very rare,” Detroit center Henrik Zetterberg said.
“He’s one of the top three passers in the game,” Vancouver winger Daniel Sedin said.
“We grabbed a scouting report from another team out of the garbage can in the visiting [locker] room,” Caps General Manager Brian MacLellan said.
You don’t say? Do tell.
“Here’s Nicky,” MacLellan said, reading directly from the paper Friday: “Very smart. Great passer and setup man. Strong on the puck. High-end stick skills. Good shot with quick release but prefers to pass. Can be dominant when he pushes the pace.”
That is the league’s assessment of a player who — apparently in complete silence — is building a Hall of Fame résumé.
“I don’t really care about that stuff,” Backstrom said Friday.
Fine. I do care. Look at other sports during the time Backstrom has been in the NHL: The guy who has driven in the seventh-most runs in baseball since 2007 is Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers — a six-time all-star and five-time Silver Slugger winner who was the National League’s MVP in 2011. The basketball player with the seventh-most points is Russell Westbrook, a five-time all-star who’s an MVP candidate this season. The quarterback who has thrown for the seventh-most yards is Aaron Freaking Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, a two-time NFL MVP and six-time Pro Bowler.
These are stars, every single one. Raw numbers almost always produce recognition. Just not for Backstrom.
So there must be something hidden here. Maybe he doesn’t pass the eye test? But then every night, he does something like he did Wednesday, early in the first period against Boston. Backstrom intercepted a Bruins pass inside his own blue line, looked up immediately and saw T.J. Oshie at center ice.
What happened next was . . . I mean, wow.
“That’s a high-level pass,” Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen said, eyebrows raised.
“It takes some touch,” Coach Barry Trotz said, smirking.
“For me, that’s an impossible pass,” Alzner said.
“Nicky’s Nicky,” Oshie said.
Nicky being Nicky, he lifted a pass not even a foot off the ice — high enough to rise above the sticks of Bruins Brad Marchand and Zdeno Charra but not so high that Oshie had to wait for it to come down. Backstrom made sure, though, that the puck landed flat on the ice so Oshie could handle it easily. The result: a one-on-none breakaway that Oshie converted into Backstrom’s 36th assist of the season.
“To process that play that quick, and then to thread the needle and have it land flat, I mean . . . ” Niskanen said, shaking his head. “It’s an overlooked skill to put a puck through traffic like that and still have it land flat. Only the high, high-end players do that at game speed.”
Exactly no part of the play happened by accident. Backstrom’s assessment: “I’ve done it many times.”
True. But if he has done stuff like this many times — “We see it every day,” Trotz said — then why doesn’t he get recognized for it?
There are a couple of likely culprits. First: logistics. To make an All-Star Game, Backstrom is not only frequently behind other prominent Eastern Conference centers — notably Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh — but the NHL’s requirement that each team be represented often has put him behind, say, John Tavares of the Islanders or Claude Giroux of the Flyers. Though Trotz touts him for the Selke and the Capitals believe he has the skills to win one, he doesn’t play on the penalty-kill unit because the Caps prefer to save him for the power play and five-on-five.
But there are other factors that keep Backstrom’s national profile low, too. Namely, Nicklas Backstrom.
“Nick’s not that person that seeks attention or wants to be that way,” said Zetterberg, who has played with Backstrom on Sweden’s national teams. “He doesn’t want to stand out.”
Ovechkin, on the other hand, does. The spotlight and the eye have long naturally fallen on the big Russian, who has benefited most from Backstrom’s unassuming nature. No Capital has ever racked up more than Backstrom’s 514 assists. But an incredible 206 have set up goals by Ovechkin. It is Backstrom’s reality that he can score a goal and set up two others, as he did Wednesday against Boston, and have the headline on NHL.com read, “Ovechkin powers Capitals past Bruins.”
“That’s how he likes it,” Sedin said.
Indeed, he does. Even now, a decade into his career, Backstrom searches for ways to talk about himself. “There’s a little bit of Swedish culture, I think, to put your team in front of yourself,” he said. And the efficiency in his game — which includes a craftiness and strength in warding opponents off the puck, not to mention a willingness and ability to cover for the mistakes of teammates — scream “solid,” not “star.” So some of his greatest strengths in terms of hockey become his greatest weaknesses in terms of garnering attention.
“He just kind of skates at one speed,” MacLellan said. “He doesn’t go into that extra gear where you go, ‘Whoa.’ He just kind of flows into the right areas, in the right spot, doing the right thing. It’s not flashy. It’s not fast, and it’s not a change of speed. It’s more blending in.”
There, right there. That’s what Backstrom has mastered. Blending in. He blends in on the Capitals. He blends into Washington, as a sports town. He blends into the NHL as if wearing camouflage.
Every team in the league, every member of the Capitals organization, realizes the importance of Nicklas Backstrom to Washington’s quest for the (don’t say it, don’t say it) Stanley Cup.
“He’s the key,” MacLellan said. “He plays against top players. He’s the key for Ovi, the key for our power play, the key to setting the tone. When he pushes the pace, he’s dominant. I think the league knows.”
Everyone should know. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. We have a Hall of Famer developing right here in front of us. Get Nicklas Backstrom the attention he wants no part of but which he more than deserves.