Nicklas Backstrom has endured a months-long rehabilitation for a hip injury, COVID, and a non-COVID illness. Put all together, his 2021-22 season feels cursed. Now, the bad juju has reached his hockey equipment.

Monday, a large box of Backstrom’s Warrior gloves was misdelivered to an Arlington, Virginia house that had a similar but very different address. A Nicke doesn’t live there, but a Jack and a Jon do.

“This gigantic box showed up at our door yesterday,” Jack explained in an interview. “There was no tag on the top so I just opened it figuring it out was ours. Then I saw hockey gloves and realized that it clearly wasn’t meant for us. Once I checked the tags on the side, I saw Backstrom’s name and the name of the equipment manager, Brock Myles.”

“At first, me and my housemate didn’t know what to do,” Jack said.

A half dozen customized Backstrom gloves were inside featuring Backstrom’s shortened first name NICKE embroidered on the cuff. If they were extra pro stock, each pair of gloves would likely retail around $200.

After some trepidation, the duo called the Capitals number on the slip. A team representative said they’d send over someone to grab the box from them. Jack and Jon live about a mile away from the team’s practice facility and were happy to get them to its rightful owner – a likely Hockey Hall of Famer.

When the Capitals rep arrived, she came bearing a gift: an overstock Tom Wilson Castaway bobblehead that was given out earlier in the season.

“Jon and I like to think of ourselves as men of high moral character and were more than happy to return the gear,” Jack said. “We also, upon further research, recognize that our transaction was probably relatively one-sided unless this bobblehead ends up being worth a few grand.”

Unless Wilson goes on an Ovechkinian-like tear to complete his career, it will not. Judging by eBay, a good day on a resale site might net them $60 for the bobblehead.

“On one end, it’s their stuff and we’re obviously not entitled to it by any means,” Jack said. “But on the other end, me and my housemate were kinda hoping for like a signed jersey or stick.”

The Backstrom gloves mark the second package of equipment the team has had misdelivered over the last two seasons. In February 2021, Zdeno Chara’s extra-long hockey sticks were accidentally delivered to a small business in New Jersey.