At least, David Backes participates in a cup final

I'm sitting here trying to figure out a reason why it's not a total disappointment that the vile Boston Bruins participate in their third Stanley Cup final of the decade after a 4-0 win to complete a sweep of Carolina, and, reader am in trouble. (This only applies to non-Bruins fans, of course.) For Bruins fans: Congratulations, your team is very talented and very well run, and we all hate you for it.) In no universe does this result get the teams have sent along the way. The extremely friendly Hurricanes would have been an explosion. The Blue Jackets would have been odd and played to prevent their team from imploding autonomously. Even Toronto, which would have been about as unbearable as Boston, would have been at least unbearable in new and exciting ways.

But no, it's the Bruins and it's time to do it. There are advantages here. The first is that the Bruins swept the Canes, who swept the Islanders, who swept the Penguins, which means Pittsburgh was swept away as embarrassingly as a team can be swept away. They were ultraswept. They may not even have been paying attention at this stage, having started their traditional activities in the low season a month ago, but each subsequent sweep pushes their shots further into the rough. If the Bruins are swept the next round, it will be wonderful for at least two reasons I can think of now.

What is even more satisfying is that David Backes, 35, has finally reached the Cup final. His first, in 13 seasons in the NHL. At the sound of the final horn, the Bruins celebrations gradually converged on Backes. The veterans of the Bruins had already come here and their first thoughts were with the one who had not done it.

With wet, red eyes, Backes explained how all these years of testing had earned him a special appreciation of that moment and the potential importance of future games for life.

Backes spent the first ten years of his career in St. Louis, including the last five as a team captain, and he was a reliable, often underrated, two-way center of a team. team that rarely imported in the spring. In 2016, he signed a five-year contract with Boston. Since then, his game has experienced a relatively steady slowdown. He rarely plays at the center, being used almost exclusively on the right, and this year things have become so difficult that Backes has been trying to reinvent himself as a self-proclaimed applicator. Things had become so difficult that Backes was a good scratch for the first game of the Boston series.

But in a second round in the second round, Backes landed against Jake DeBrusk on the second row of David Krejci, who earned the place. Although the points may not be up for the moment – he scored two goals and three assists in 10 playoff games – he did everything right and added some physics to a line that clearly benefits. After all this, he is a useful NHL player in a team that goes to the finals. Not bad.

"You've been thinking about that for a long time – playing for the ultimate price you dream of when you're a kid," said Backes. "It's reality. It's a team against another and one of us is coming home with this Stanley Cup. That's what you dream of.

And so, Backes will be the Eastern Conference candidate for the "old man who will win a Cup", either against A Whole Bunch Of Sharks or Alex Steen? You could do worse! Be thankful for the silver liners where you find them.