Washington Capitals: Backstrom back and lucky to get started again

Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom is ready for the playoffs.

Washington Capitals hockey is in full swing with training camp and after the first day of workouts, Nicklas Backstrom met with the media on a Zoom conference call to touch on a variety of subjects about the anticipation of the return of hockey.

“I think we’re just lucky that we can play hockey again,” said Backstrom.

Backstrom stressed the importance of keeping his family as safe as possible. He returned to D.C. in late June while his family has remained in Sweden. A lot of players will be away from their families for as much as the next few months. Backstrom mentioned that he had a good talk with his family prior to heading to the U.S. and talked about how you have to make sacrifices during tough situations.

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“I think we decided pretty early that I was going to go over myself. We liked our setup better for my fiance and kids to stay back in Sweden there. It wasn’t really a long conversation,” said Backstrom.

Backstrom signed a five year extension in January just several weeks before the season was shut down due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. He’s going to make $9.2 million a year.

“I’ve heard it from many, many people that I got lucky… sometimes you got to be lucky,” Backstrom said on his contract.

The Caps will open the tournament in the Round Robin with the first game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Aug. 3. On Aug. 6 the Caps will take on the Philadelphia Flyers and finally on Aug. 8th they’ll play the Boston Bruins.

The Round Robin will be the first hurdle to determine where the Caps will be seeded when entering the tournament. These players aren’t coming back into town away from their families for nothing. They’re on a mission to win it.

“We’re playing for a championship here,” said Backstrom.

“Obviously we all love hockey and we want it back and if we can do it now and we’re all very strict about this, I think we can make it happen. We all want sports back and we want to do what we love, you know?”, Backstrom added.

Backstrom scored 12 goals and added 42 assists for 54 points prior to the season getting paused. Look for him to take over on the second line unless Reirden shakes things up and bumps him to the top line.