Washington Capitals Legend Nicklas Backstrom off to Sweden

Washington Capitals Legend Nicklas Backstrom off to Sweden

The Washington Capitals sending this out. Sending our best wishes and gratitude to Nikki as he returns home to continue his hockey career in Sweden. Nick Backstrom, one of the nicest players we’ve ever encountered here on NHL Network. It’s the same thought that I have about Jonathan Taves. Great players deserve to go out on their terms. In the case of Nick Backstrom, the hip resurfacing was a nightmare. Here he is getting ready to play in his native Sweden. Gives me goosebumps. Grimmer. M yeah I and you know just to to see a guy still the the fire the passion still burns for the game to get to get back into it. I mean albeit it’s not the NHL but it’s a really competitive level of hockey but to subject yourself to that uh speaks volumes about your you know what what’s going on inside that that ticking heart. Hicks is he a Hall of Famer? Tough one. That’s a great question and and I think he’s a guy that maybe not your first ballot type of guy but you look at his body work. I know he didn’t win the major awards, but I I had to play against this guy a ton. And when you think about Washington and you think about that power play, you all think about Ovetchkin. I I was usually on the other side of the ice and this guy had the puck in his hands and he just sees through you. And I I think for him maybe way he doesn’t pop up as a Hall of Fame guy right away to a lot of people is he didn’t dominate games, but he did control games and he did it all with his eyes. He’s not a guy that moved at an extremely fast pace. He was so smooth. He slowed everyone on the ice down and then he did exactly what he wanted to do. I think this is a guy that if he decided that he wanted to shoot more, could have put up a lot more goals in his career. His playmaking was just so good. Uh when I look at him and you ask about Hall of Fame, I go number 19, I think certainly looks like a guy that could end up there. But the other part of it too, Stu, he was a power forward to me. I don’t I don’t think anyone would generalize him as a power forward. To me, he’d turn his back on you. He he’d stick his rear end out. Yeah. And he was a puck protecting player. He was a phenomenal playmaker. Maybe that’s why his body didn’t hold up because he took a lot of uh It’s a big time compliment. Exactly. It’s interesting you say it that way. I I wouldn’t, you know, I kind of, you know, I cocked my head a little bit when you mentioned power forward, but but power forward in the heavy sense of the game. Very hard to knock off the puck. And I I would agree with that. He would invite puck battles, right? He’d go, “Come and get it.” And you go the wrong way and he’s gone. It’s kind of an understated part of his game. No question. Cuz he he did play a rather cerebral game, but you don’t often put cerebral and and and power into the into the same mix too often. I I think it’s a slam dunk for me. May not be a first ballot, but it’s an it’s an eventual and not that, you know, not that far into the into the future um ballot in my estimation. Think about it in these terms. 1,33 points over,5 games. Um, I’ll bet you I’ll bet you you could point to a dozen guys u this era or you know soon before that are around those numbers that are that are hall of fame um you know uh participants uh fixtures now. Um but but the other piece of it tone is you know add to that he’s a Stanley Cup champion going back to 18. I I think that kind of gets you over the top if the if the pure the raw numbers didn’t. And two, I think you’ve got to pay, you know, important attention to this if you’re the Hall of Fame committee as you’re making this decision. He rode shotgun alongside the best goal scorer ever of all time. Tell him, Grimmer, of all time. And you know, it’s it’s no um it’s no stroke of luck that uh that Obie is able to put up the numbers that OVie did with Backrom as his pivot for substantially all of Backstre’s career. So, um, those two together developed incredible chemistry. Um, they’re among the best tandemss we’ve ever seen in the game, but, um, Back had a great feel for what OV needed and fed him fed him exceptionally well. That for me is an important piece of the criteria as well. It would be unbefitting, uh, for the Hall to to not, you know, usher in uh, Backstrom as a pivot to Ovetchkin based on what Ovkin did over the course of his career. And I agree what you’re saying. It enhances his case. It doesn’t take away from the fact that he played with the greatest goal scorer.

NHL Tonight discusses Washington Capitals legend Nicklas Backstrom going back to play in Sweden.

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