Nicklas Backstrom has a knack for always doing the right thing at the right time.
Tuesday, during the Capitals’ 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, Backstrom showed off his unselfishness once again by not wanting to score an empty-net goal. The Swedish center wanted to help his longtime teammate Alex Ovechkin get his 50th goal of the season.
NBC Sports Washington’s Craig Laughlin was the first to notice what happened.
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“If you watch this play closely, once Backstrom got the puck, the first thing he did was look back for the Capitals captain,” Laughlin said. “When he saw he was being picked up, he elected to shoot himself to make it 4-1. But this is why this team is so great. They know the moments. They know how to play and sacrifice themselves at some point.”
“Watch Nick,” Laughlin said. “Immediate look around to see if Ovi was going to come and join the attack. When he was a little bit too far behind, watch right here, the turn of the head, looking for Ovi, then he immediately shot the puck.”
After scoring his 49th goal of the season, Ovechkin received a loud chant from Caps fans “WE WANT 50!”
WE WANT 50 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 (@russianmachine) pic.twitter.com/GpLBUq1EIs
— shut up pierre (@burakOOFsky) March 27, 2019
Backstrom wanted to make it happen, but it just wasn’t in the cards.
“It would be nice to get it, we still have five games,” Ovechkin said. “I have lots of chances to score tonight. I get one, because I think the last couple of games I didn’t use my chances. It was an important goal and happy with the win.”
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