Nicklas Backstrom is so quiet, sometimes it’s hard to notice just how amazing of a hockey player he is.
Tuesday night, Backy taught the Columbus Blue Jackets an important lesson in the second period: if you reach, I’ll teach.
After taking a drop pass from Marcus Johansson, Backstrom fakes a shot, lifts his left into the air, and curls the puck to the corner boards away from defenseman David Savard. Backstrom regroups, recoils, and skates around Nick Foligno’s outstretched stick.
Backstrom then skates hard towards the slot, beats Brandon Saad to the net, and then gets a shot off before Alexander Wennberg or Zach Werenski, who’s tying up Johansson, can poke the puck away.
This is amazing.
On the very next shift, Backstrom would score after going one-on-three and rifling a snapshot past Sergey Bobrovsky.
Nicklas Backstrom finally gets the Caps on the board with a snipe. pic.twitter.com/ohdrzeHUb2
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) November 16, 2016
Nicklas Backstrom on his goal: "I was just trying to do something I don't do too often – shoot the puck! It worked that time." pic.twitter.com/5pMZlLOGZk
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) November 16, 2016
Keep shooting, Nicky!
