Nicklas Backstrom: The Unsung Toughman
When Nicklas Backstrom got a standing ovation from the home crowd Thursday, it wasn't for a slick assist to Alex Ovechkin or a wraparound goal of his own. It was because, with his stick shattered on the ice and his team down two men, Backstrom wasn't afraid to use his body to block the puck, shot after shot, in front of the net.
It was a perfect snapshot of Backstrom's relatively unsung durability as an NHL player. Though he fits in nicely centering the top line of a team that sports gaudy offensive stats, there's one fact that sets him apart from nearly all his teammates: Backstrom's never missed an NHL start in his career.
And in a sport where toughness makes you as attractive as Heidi Klum on the runway, Backstrom's personal ironman streak is a thing of beauty.
"There's different thought processes on tough players," said Capitals assistant coach Dean Evason, who played 13 years in the NHL. "If they can fight, some guys think that they're tough. But I think -- and we think as a coaching staff -- that Nicky's one of the toughest guys that we've ever seen play. And what I mean by that, I just mean fighting through things, fighting through checks, fighting through little injuries, battling to play the game each and every night."
And the 22-year old center, now in his third year in the NHL, does it all with a smile on his face.
"It just felt good," Backstrom said of the barrage of pucks he blocked on Thursday night.
Backstrom admitted to DCist in an interview that he's not really sure what he does differently that keeps him on the ice game after game. He said he's always been relatively injury-free, even as a kid.
"I've been lucky, maybe," he said.
Some people, however, make their own luck. Evason said Backstrom has suffered injuries this year that possibly could have kept him out of games, but that he's fought through them.
"There's a difference between playing hurt and playing injured," Evason said. "Obviously, he hasn't been injured enough to not play."
Backstrom's career numbers now reflect 228 regular season and 21 playoff games logged, without injury, at the sport's highest level. And like so much in professional athletics, numbers like that carry serious weight in the locker room.
"It's uplifting for our guys to see your top centerman, your top guy, out there each and every night, each and every practice, he's working hard," Evason said. "I think as a leadership point, his toughness is really good within the [locker] room as well."
Packaged with Backstrom's durability, Evason said, is the center's ability to remain even-keeled regardless of highs and lows on the ice, whether it's putting the puck in his own net against arch-rival Pittsburgh or ranking fourth overall in the NHL this year in assists and points (he also ranks third in plus/minus). It's enough to make you realize that sometimes it's not MVP Alex Ovechkin making Backstrom look good on the top line, but the other way around.
"I think Alexander Ovechkin's been the greatest player in the world because of the way that Nicky gets him the puck," Evason admitted.
Apparently, he's not bad at broken stick, shorthanded situations, either. But the question of why Backstrom fights through checks, plays through injuries, and makes his number 19 ever-present in every Capitals game is answered when Washington Post reporter Tarik El-Bashir asks him after Thursday's game why he felt the need to block all those pucks with his body.
"I wanted to win," Backstrom said.