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WASHINGTON – Nicklas Backstrom had played a four-point Stanley Cup playoff game for nine years.
It was a different time, a time when Backstrom and his teammates too often failed under the weight of enormous expectations. Everything is gone now. A Stanley Cup banner hanging on the beams of Capital One Arena is proof. Now they can all play.
With teammate T.J. Oshie injured and possibly missing for the season, Backstrom continued to play his own game in the fifth game of a first-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes. He scored two goals and two assists in 6-0 against Washington as Washington took a 3-2 lead in the series and pushed the Hurricanes to the brink of elimination. Alex Ovechkin added a goal and two assists.
Backstrom's last four-point games were held on April 17, 2010. He had a hat trick that night and scored the winner in overtime.
"It was probably Montreal, was not it?" Said Backstrom before confessing. "Yes, Ovi said. He remembers everything.
C & # 39; were darker days. The Capitals lost the 3-1 lead against Montreal and the best team of the Ovechkin era was eliminated in the first round despite the presidents' trophy. No wonder Backstrom needs help to remember.
There is not such a problem this season. The 31-year-old Swede carries the Capitals, who are at a game of advancing. It was his second two-goal game in the series. He has a total of five goals, which is his highest level in a 2010 playoff series against Canadians. He and Ovechkin, who have seven points in the series (three goals, four assists) set the tone and their teammates followed.
"In all areas too," said goalkeeper Braden Holtby. "They obviously got the points card, but their game far from the puck, on failure before, supporting one against the other, they are very difficult to face when they play as that and I thought that they had done a great job in all the series, too. "
Backstrom's five goals lived up to what he had had in the last season in the playoffs when the Caps won the Cup. He missed the match because of a broken finger, but still played at 20 and scored five goals and 18 assists. He tied his total production of eight points in 2009 against Pittsburgh and 2018 against Columbus. His best career result was again this Montreal series where he had nine points. Not that he cares about that now. None of the Caps does it. If production leads to winning and going to the second round, that's all that matters.
"It's good for the confidence I'm thinking. But it will be a different match in Carolina, "said Backstrom. "We just have to regroup here and move on. It was just a 3-2 lead. The hardest is the last. We were not happy with the way we played in Carolina so far. Let's change that. "
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