Tonight is a historic night for Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom as well as the franchise as the 2006 first rounder will take the NHL ice for the 1,000th time of his career. He is the second Caps player to play in 1,000 games, joining Alex Ovechkin who achieved the feat three years ago.
It is a shame fans won’t be there to give Backstrom the proper salute as this will be the last home contest without fans. Even though fans won’t be there we can still salute Nicky from home as the Caps will have a special pregame ceremony honoring Backstrom.
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The Caps will also wear special number 19 jerseys during pregame warmups. Backstrom will hate it, because he doesn’t like the attention, and it will be awesome. The Caps will be rocking their beautiful navy blue jerseys for the game. You can catch the ceremony on the NBC Sports Washington pregame show as well as WashingtonCaps.com/VirtualGameday. Virtual gameday has been a highlight all season long without fans.
Backstrom will become the second active player to reach the 1,000 game mark with at least 700 career assists, the other being Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Only 23 players in NHL history had at least 700 assists at the 1,000 game mark in their career. Of those 23, 21 of them are in the Hockey Hall of Fame while the other two are not yet eligible.
Backstom will become the 69th player in NHL history and the 14th active player to play in 1,000 career games with one team and the first Capital to reach the 1,000 game mark since Brooks Orpik on Jan. 14, 2019 against the St. Louis Blues.
"It means a lot and, obviously, to do it with the same team too is very special. Washington has meant so much to me and to be able to play 1,000 games with this team is going to be a special feeling for sure."
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 14, 2021
Nicklas Backstrom on 1,000 career games.#ALLCAPS | #N1KY pic.twitter.com/n6hqDQo3be
Backstrom spoke to the media after Wednesday’s practice in a long interview reflecting on how far he’s come to get to 1,000 games. Via Tom Gulitti of NHL.com, Backstrom said:
"“First of all, just getting 1,000 games, it’s a lot of games in this league and I’m proud of that. And second of all, to do it with the same team is very fortunate, and I’m very, very happy about that, to get to play 1,000 with the same team.”"
We have been very fortunate and spoiled of not only getting to watch Ovechkin but seeing the best playmaking passer setting him up night after night. Backstrom doesn’t get the recognition he deserves from across the league but tonight is his night. In an important night for both Backstrom, and the franchise, it’ll be something we can be proud of as fans.