Other than being an effective penalty killer there’s been nothing objectively excellent about Backstrom’s game. His line has contributed nothing offensively and has looked like the worst even strength line in both games (and it hasn’t been particularly close either). He looks slow and not at all dangerous or a threat offensively. Being an effective penalty killer and providing nothing offensively is fine for a 4th liner playing 8 minutes a game and making a million dollars but this team is going nowhere without him stepping his game up by a considerable margin.
1st. Backstrom's first 5 on 5 responsibility in that game was to check Giroux and keep that line off the board. Success there too. That isnt some 4th liner gig. On the power play he didnt turn the puck over and retrieved dump in's well. Beyond that, with that pp lay out what he can do is significantly reduced. Even strenth. I dont know if you noticed but Vrana barely played. The reason was all the penalty killing and the pp's. That line barely skated 5 on 5 shifts.
I dont know if you have ever heard a coach talk about how penalty killing drains the players more than anything else. That repeated penalty kills destroys 5 on 5 play.
I believe Reirden said something similar in his post game presser yesterday.
Meanwhile, I have listed a number of high level contributions that Backstrom made yesterday. They didnt lose because of him. Do you want to talk about Kuznetsov now?
