Nicklas Backstrom
“Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.”
“Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.”
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
In the four years leading to the 2015-2016 season, ten
skaters appeared in at least 200 games and recorded at least 0.95 points per
game. It is a who’s who list of elite players. One of them is the Washington Capitals’ Nicklas Backstrom,
perhaps the player with the fewest column inches and pixels devoted to his
performance of any of the ten. But if he
was unappreciated in reporting, his coaches certainly held him in high regard. As head coach Barry Trotz put it in the first
month of this season:
“I’m telling you guys. You guys out West don’t see him. I didn’t see him enough. He’s the best two-way forward I have ever coached, and I’ve coached some pretty good guys, like Mike Fisher. Everybody just thinks he’s an offensive player, but he’s as good as there is in the business on both ends of the ice.”
And that first month of the season was another in the uncommonly
persistent pace at which Backstrom records points – four goals and four assists
in the seven games in which he played (he missed the first three games of the
season recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his hip over the summer). It was a pace he maintained over the course
of the season. Looking at his ten-game
splits, the range of points recorded was between eight and 11 over his first
six splits. He fell off somewhat in his
last two splits, recording seven points in each (including in the eight,
12-game split to end the season), perhaps as much a function of the Caps having
clinched the league’s best record as any sluggishness in his play.
As it was, Backstrom finished the season with 20 goals, his
highest total since he has a career high 33 in the 2009-2010 season. He had his third straight 70-point
season. It, and the body of his work in
previous seasons, garnered him his first career All-Star Game appearance in
Nashville in January.
That body of work had another solid year added to in in
terms of possession numbers. For the
eighth time in nine seasons, Backstrom finished with a Corsi-for at 5-on-5 over
50 percent. For the ninth time he
finished Corsi-for/Relative in positive territory (numbers from
war-on-ice.com).
His consistency was, as one would expect, consistent at a
game-to-game level. Only twice this
season did he go as many as three consecutive games without a point. Both of them came in the last 30 games of the
season. Again, a product of the Caps’
position in the standings or was it something in Backstrom’s play? Remember that Backstrom missed three games
late in the season with an upper body injury and sat out the season finale. His second instance of three consecutive
games without a point came two weeks before he missed those games. Given the mystery that attaches to reporting
of injuries in the NHL, perhaps he wasn’t 100 percent as the season was winding
down, either.
Fearless’ Take… Fun Backstrom Fact: He is the only player in the league to finish
each of the last three seasons with at least 50 assists (he had 50 this season)
and at least 70 points. Only three other
players did it twice (Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson, and Joe Thornton).
Cheerless’ Take… Those last three columns in that chart up
on top have a strange look to them. That
minus-39 in his fourth ten-game segment in Corsi plus/minus sticks out,
especially after he was plus-101 over his first three segments. He was in minus territory in seven of those
games, but the odd thing about it was, the Caps went 8-1-1. That seemed to be
something of a turning point in Backstrom’s season. To that point, he had a plus-52 in scoring
chances/on ice over his first three segments.
He was minus-20 in that fourth segment, then a minus-1 over his last
four segments. His 5-on-5 goal
differential did not seem to change much, but those underlying numbers did not
look as good late as they did early. A
result of the Caps lapping the field in the standings? Maybe, but that doesn’t make them look any
better.
Odd Backstrom Fact… Playmaking was win-making when Backstrom
was on the ice. The Caps were 31-5-1
when Backstrom recorded at least one assist (9-0-0 when he had musti-assist
games). The odd part of it is that the
Caps were “only” 12-3-3 when he recorded a goal.
Game to Remember… December 18th versus Tampa Bay
If it was a memorable game, it was because a milestone was
achieved by Backstrom in the most “Backstromian” way. Late in their contest against the Tampa Bay
Lightning, a game in which the Caps came back from a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3
lead, John Carlson dug the puck out of the corner to the right of goalie Braden
Holtby. The puck slid out to Alex
Ovechkin along the wall, who fed it to Backstrom exiting the defensive
zone. Backstrom skated through the
neutral zone with an empty Lightning net at the other end and only forward Vladislav
Namestnikov back. Backstrom could have
fired the puck to the empty net, but he fed it off to T.J. Oshie on his right,
who scored the empty net goal in the Caps’ 5-3 win. The assist was Backstrom’s 600th career point. He became the fourth player in Capitals’ history to hit the 600-point mark
and finished the season as one of only 37 active players with at least 600 NHL
points, sixth on that list in points per career game.
Game to Forget… March 20th versus Pittsburgh
What an odd game this was, for the Caps and for
Backstrom. There was a lot of back and
forth over the first 25 minutes, the Pens opening the scoring with a pair of
first period goals, the Caps tying the game with a pair to start the second period. At that point, though, the Caps imploded,
giving up the game’s last four goals in a 6-2 loss. For Backstrom, it was the only game this
season in which the Caps lost when he skated fewer than 17 minutes
(10-1-0). The rest of his scoring line
was equally forgettable – no points, one shot attempt (on goal), one giveaway,
7-for-17 in faceoffs.
Postseason: 12 games, 2-9-11, plus-3, 55.1 5-on-5 CF%,
plus-4.7 CF%/Relative
Nicklas Backstrom’s postseason illustrates the difference
between “productivity” (those underlying numbers like Corsi) and “performance”
(goals, points, wins). If you look at
the two series, in both of which Backstrom and the Caps played six games, his
5-on-5 numbers were almost indistinguishable – 54.7 percent Corsi-for against
the Philadelphia Flyers, 55.5 percent against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the
second round. He had 21 shot attempts in
the six games against the Flyers, 20 in the six games against the
Penguins. He was a plus-19 in 5-on-5
Corsi-differential in both series. His
Corsi-for and Corsi-against in the two series were almost identical (numbers
from war-on-ice.com).
The difference was in the performance numbers. Backstrom had two goals in the Flyer series, none against the Penguins. He had five assists against Philadelphia, four against the Penguins. It did not matter so much in the regular season when Backstrom did not have a goal (remember that 12-3-3 record noted above), but in the postseason the Caps won both games in which he had a goal and went 4-6 when he didn’t. This wasn’t the reason the Caps failed to advance, but one does wonder what one timely goal might have meant. When one says “there is enough blame to go around” with respect to the Caps’ second round loss, it doesn’t jump past Backstrom to the next player, either.
The difference was in the performance numbers. Backstrom had two goals in the Flyer series, none against the Penguins. He had five assists against Philadelphia, four against the Penguins. It did not matter so much in the regular season when Backstrom did not have a goal (remember that 12-3-3 record noted above), but in the postseason the Caps won both games in which he had a goal and went 4-6 when he didn’t. This wasn’t the reason the Caps failed to advance, but one does wonder what one timely goal might have meant. When one says “there is enough blame to go around” with respect to the Caps’ second round loss, it doesn’t jump past Backstrom to the next player, either.
In the end…
The summaries we have written about Backstrom over the years
have almost as consistent a quality as his play. He’s a consistent player, perhaps none more
so in his nine seasons in the NHL. In
some ways it makes him as important – as valuable – a player as Alex
Ovechkin. But that can be a two-edged
sword. As long as Backstrom is that
consistent player, the Caps are a consistently successful team. But when it falters in the least, the Caps
will have problems unless others step up in a big way. And that was a scenario that played out to
some extent in the postseason. Backstrom’s
second round numbers were almost identical in terms of possession, but his
performance numbers slipped just slightly.
It was not the proximate reason the Caps left the playoff stage early,
but as close as the series was with the Penguins, a point here or there might
have been a difference-maker, enough to make up for the larger shortcomings of
some of his teammates.
Grade: B
Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images North America