So much of Nicklas Backstrom’s game is subtle. The pass before the pass that moves defenders around the ice like chess pieces to set up a quality scoring chance for the Capitals. Coming out of a corner fight with the puck even though two opposing players were right there with him. It’s a head fake or a shift of the eyes on a rush to let a teammate know where he should be and where the puck is going.
What Backstrom did to Rangers forward Artem Anisimov during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Saturday was not subtle. It was a good, old-fashioned counter hit that knocked the stunned Anisimov – no small man at 6-foot-4 – right to the ice. It’s an underappreciated part of Backstrom’s game and right out of the playbook of his idol, former Swedish great Peter Forsberg.
“He reverse-shouldered,” Washington coach Dale Hunter said of his center. “He’s strong on his feet, he’s got great balance. You notice he doesn’t fall much on the ice because of his balance.”
Hunter knows of what he speaks. He jokingly remembered the times Forsberg pulled the same move on him late in his playing career, including a short stretch in the 1998-99 season when Hunter was traded to Forsberg’s Colorado Avalanche team to help in a Stanley Cup playoff run.
“So I’d go in very slowly when I’d go to hit [Forsberg],” Hunter cracked.
That reverse hit in the second period on Saturday led to the puck finding its way to teammate Jason Chimera. He waited a beat, saw Backstrom drift into open space to the right of New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist and centered the pass as hard as he could. Backstrom stopped the puck cold and fired a wrister over Lundqvist’s right shoulder. It was an impossible shot to stop.
“I don’t know if he took a page out of Forsberg’s book, but he always does that,” Chimera said of Backstrom’s counter hit. “It’s a good play to separate yourself from a guy because usually guys are not expecting to get hit when they’re coming to hit a guy. He’s done that a lot…That’s why you don’t go near him in practice when he’s got the puck. So you try to stay off him.”
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