Burnside checks in with yet another gripping tale on the most grave and dire of circumstances! A number one seed after rolling through the first round in a scintillating five contests now fall in a single game (#missedpenalty/flukegoal) so clearly its time to question a player you just locked up for a billion years and a half billion dollars. (or something close). On now to the italics!
His voice is barely above a whisper.
It is the soft voice of a player who knows he is not doing enough.
It is the quiet voice of a player who knows he must do more.
It is the whispery voice of a player failing at a time when his services are needed most.
It is the voice of Nicklas Backstrom.
It is the voice of an asshole hack writer who can't start a lame article (blog entry) without some douchetastic poetic wasping. Great five lines in and we all assume Backy is a giant vaginal.
"I mean, of course you're frustrated, especially when you had that tap-in yesterday," Backstrom told reporters at the team's practice facility Saturday. "You obviously want to help your team as much as you can. But the thing is, I mean, I'm trying to do my best all the time out there. I'm doing penalty killing and things like that, too.
"But I should have been scoring a lot more goals. That's for sure."
Hogwash Nick! You have one point my boy, must be end of the world time!
The tap-in to which Backstrom referred was a glorious chance during the second period of Game 1 of the Capitals Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. At the time, the Capitals led 2-1 and were dominating the Lightning.
Glorious? Let us pray lord for a most amazing of graces...
After a terrific Alex Ovechkin chance, the puck bounced free in the crease area, and Backstrom took several whacks at it but could not connect.
Who knows how this game would have turned out had the slick center made good on the chance? Would a 3-1 lead have been enough?
Who knows, what if the arena had been struck by lightening, or what if the puck just magically burst into a glittering cloud of powder and no other puck could be found, or what if aliens had come down and bowed to ovechkin as their god thus granting our franchise permanent stanley cup ownership.
The point is moot, of course, given that Backstrom came up empty and the Lightning went on to score twice late in the second period then add an empty-netter to earn a 4-2 victory in Game 1.
It is a mug's game to single out one player on a team and suggest if only he had done more, been better the outcome would have been different.
Oh boy it sounds like almost time for more beautiful poetry... Take it way e.b....
Doesn't stop us from doing so, though.
And that is the nature of the playoffs.
Praise goes to those players who can find a way, regardless of their stature.
I picture a waterfall, with large gazing pines and windswept fields below, a river cutting through a dense fog with a really big black border around it on the crummy walls of burnside's shitty office in the basement of the fifth building on espn headquarters.
We watched Benn Ferriero score the overtime winner for the San Jose Sharks Friday night after being a healthy scratch for the first six games of the playoffs.
Totally relevent in an article on Nicky Backstrom, center of the Caps. Oh by the way, did you hear, Chara hit that dude into the wall! and then someone else scored!
Steven Stamkos scored the winner in Game 1 against the Capitals on the power play after having a difficult first round.
Good for stamkos...
Conversely, the failure to deliver those moments, especially for players whose raison d'etre is to score, to make plays, to push a team forward, brings with it the sting of criticism.
I really think he was eating raisins while writing that.
Throwing Marian Gaborik under the bus for his failures in the playoffs has become a rite of spring. How often did we question Marian Hossa during recent playoff years? Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau -- the list of top players who have somehow failed to deliver the goods is long.
All four of these guys are Backstrom in a different form you see, they're all related as a single hockey playing entity, we are all one energy existing between rink to rink, funneling goals between only great players and not fellows who deserve such lofty contracts.
Backstrom has been relatively free of such criticism.
FUCK YOU BACKSTROM TIME TO GET YOURS BUDDY!
But that he did not score on the tap-in or later on a glorious chance from the deep slot off a terrific Ovechkin feed isn't all that surprising.
Backstrom has gone 14 straight games without a goal and has scored just three times in his last 24 games.
So he just pretty much sucks.
The center's play has been a bit of a curiosity this postseason.
Weeee I'm curious George!
Unlike a talent such as Alexander Semin, whose presence this playoff year has yo-yoed from the brilliant to the banal, sometimes from shift to shift, Backstrom appears neither here nor there.
(Ponders for twenty minutes how 'here nor there' and 'yo-yoed' are much different... head explodes)
"I think you take the scoring away and he's doing a really good job," coach Bruce Boudreau said Saturday. "He still plays the most of any minutes of our forwards. But I think he's squeezing the stick pretty tight.
"He wants to do really well. He doesn't give the puck away or anything like that. I think he's trying to be too cute and make the perfect play. And it's taking a toll on his scoring."
It's easy to suggest a player should score more.
Clearly, you've written an entire article on the topic.
How to help him do that is more complex. Boudreau said he is in communication with his top pivot in the hopes of getting him back on track.
"I think you can give him some ideas," Boudreau said. "I gave him some ideas yesterday. And I'll talk to him in a few minutes and tell him what I think he was doing last night.
I HAVE IDEAS! I HAVE PEOPLE SKILLS! GET ME PEPPERONI!
It's early in these playoffs, one game into the second round. And Backstrom is young, just 23.
But sometimes the line between early and done is razor fine.
Another loss at home on Sunday night against Tampa, and all of a sudden the Washington Capitals' dream of a long playoff run will turn nightmarish.
Its early....WILL TURN NIGHTMARISH!
In the end, though, it doesn't matter that Backstrom is self-aware and candid about his need to be better.
This is a player in the first year of a 10-year contract extension that pays him an average of $6.7 million annually.
It is his job to deliver the goods. It is that simple.
Is there more pressure on him now than a couple of years ago? Of course.
Just had to squeeze in another dig at his contract huh? God forbid, a 23 year old kid works out some kinks in his game. Datsyuk was playing KHL scrubs at 23...
"Yeah, absolutely, and it should be, too, and I put high expectation on myself, too," Backstrom said.
It is fair, then, to ask when expectation will give way to results. And for the Washington Capitals, the answer must be soon.
I thought it was early? Thanks Burny for your take yet again, you have proven yourself just and a scholar of highest order!
Glorious.
