The disgraceful oversight of Nick Backstrom

[trick9]

30 points in the last 19 games.

He'll propably win the Art Ross if Ovechkin starts to play at some point. He's had his summer break mid-season this year.

 

[vippe]

30 points in the last 19 games.

He'll propably win the Art Ross if Ovechkin starts to play at some point. He's had his summer break mid-season this year.

Oshi backies show right now. Not saying Ovechkin isnt playing well, things just arent clicking for him right now.

Ovechtrick coming up! At some point, maybe..

 

[trick9]

Oshi backies show right now. Not saying Ovechkin isnt playing well, things just arent clicking for him right now.

Ovechtrick coming up! At some point, maybe..

He's not playing well. Looks like he's on a vacation.

There is a reason why he's playing below 15 minutes right now.

 

[vippe]

He's not playing well. Looks like he's on a vacation.

There is a reason why he's playing below 15 minutes right now.

Yeah things could certainly be better right now that is for sure. But I dont think he is pulling the others down.. which is ok since Oshie and Backstrom are on fire and make it work any way. Ovechkin will get covered just because he is Ovechkin.

With that said, line could be even better if Ovechkin gets to play like we know he can which is down right scary thought

 

[hockey4sale]

Honestly, Ovie plain sucks this season, I think he is having 2nd worst year of his career, it is amazing that he has 26goals and is 3rd in goal scoring, this just tells you how good he is that even in his off year he is 3rd in goal scoring, right now it is Backstrom who carries the top line and Ovie for the Caps, not the other way around

 

[trick9]

Yeah things could certainly be better right now that is for sure. But I dont think he is pulling the others down.. which is ok since Oshie and Backstrom are on fire and make it work any way. Ovechkin will get covered just because he is Ovechkin.

With that said, line could be even better if Ovechkin gets to play like we know he can which is down right scary thought

Not that worried about him really. He's done and won pretty much everything you can during the regular season so he's just waiting for the Playoffs, he'll pick it up at some point. Just saying that if it doesn't happen for a while then Backstrom has to stay red hot himself to win the Art Ross.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Backstrom is a very good player but also an example of how points isn't really everything. He is overlooked because he's not all that exciting to watch or talk about, he doesn't score many goals (25+ just once in his career, 20+ just 3 times), and because he's playing next to one of the most exciting goalscorers in the history of the league which casts a huge shadow and makes his assist numbers seem somewhat inflated.

8 goals in his last 55 playoff games doesn't help his reputation.

 

[The Toews Era*]

86 of his 520 career assists come from goals scored by Alex Ovechkin on the powerplay.

That is 16.5% of his total assists.

If one subtracts all of Ovechkin's powerplay goals from the equation, Backstrom still would have 434 assists in 708 games, or 0.613 assists per game. That would slot him comfortably in 8th place on that list, just underneath Patrick Kane.

Backstrom assists on an Ovechkin powerplay goal at a rate of once every 8.23 games, or approximately 10 times per season. Of course, it takes some work on the part of Backstrom as well to create the opportunities for Ovechkin to score in those situations.

If we halved the number of Ovechkin powerplay goals that he assisted on -- let's say, for example, throughout his career he only assisted on 43 of Ovechkin's powerplay goals, or played with someone half as proficient as Ovechkin is on the powerplay -- he would be in 5th place on the list, just beneath Jaromir Jagr, with an average of 0.673 assists per game.

Right now, Nicklas Backstrom is tied for second in NHL scoring with 60 points in 56 games; he is one point behind Connor McDavid. So far in 2016-17, he has assisted on only 13 of Alex Ovechkin's goals. He currently has 43 total assists, tied with McDavid for the league lead.

This season, Backstrom has scored at a rate of 2.54 assists per 60 minutes. McDavid has scored at a rate of 2.17 assists per 60 minutes.

Sidney Crosby, meanwhile, has only scored at a rate of 1.92 assists per 60 minutes this season; Evgeni Malkin: 2.21 assists per 60 minutes.

Uhm, the fact that 1/6 of all of backstroms assists come via an ovechkin goal on the power play only helps make my point lol. Think about how specific of a scenario that is. Power play goal scored by one specific guy is 1/6 of all assists. Removing them does in fact move him way down the list and his placement of 2nd or whatever IS an exaggeration of his ability.

 

[The Toews Era*]

While it's appreciated that you keep reminding everyone that Toews can't stack up against top players on his own, I think everyone knows it already.

Mentioning Toews in an unrelated thread just reminds everyone that your narrative cant stack up on its own

 

[VictorLustig]

Backstrom is a very good player but also an example of how points isn't really everything. He is overlooked because he's not all that exciting to watch or talk about, he doesn't score many goals (25+ just once in his career, 20+ just 3 times), and because he's playing next to one of the most exciting goalscorers in the history of the league which casts a huge shadow and makes his assist numbers seem somewhat inflated.

8 goals in his last 55 playoff games doesn't help his reputation.

Backstrom is an absolute joy to watch. His IQ, vision and just overall smoothness stands out a lot more to me than spinoramas, end to end rushes etc. His role is not to score goals but to make them happen.

 

[Capathetic]

Backstrom is good without Ovechkin. This years Caps team looks better than any other to me because for once they are not relying on Ovechkin when they need to score. I've watched this team go down too many times force feeding Ovie. This year if he's open yeah let's try the best shot in the game but if it's not...don't force it.

It's also no shocker Oshie puts up great numbers thanks to Backstrom. Most of those free Ovie assists goto whichever defenseman the Caps pencil in on the PP.

 

[Phil McKraken]

Uhm, the fact that 1/6 of all of backstroms assists come via an ovechkin goal on the power play only helps make my point lol. Think about how specific of a scenario that is. Power play goal scored by one specific guy is 1/6 of all assists. Removing them does in fact move him way down the list and his placement of 2nd or whatever IS an exaggeration of his ability.

Why would you do that though? Your logic is that Backstrom would have 86 points less in his career if Ovechkin was somehow replaced with a black hole. That's true I guess but the problem is that your average winger would still score on half of those passes, and most star centers - which you are comparing him to - don't even play with average wingers.

 

[txpd]

8 goals in his last 55 playoff games doesn't help his reputation.

reputation is often built on your most recent work unless people don't pay attention, which in Backstrom's case they don't. He was outstanding last playoffs. He was 2-9 for 11 in 12 playoff games. He was +3 after being matched at even strength against Giroux and Crosby.

 

[txpd]

Uhm, the fact that 1/6 of all of backstroms assists come via an ovechkin goal on the power play only helps make my point lol. Think about how specific of a scenario that is. Power play goal scored by one specific guy is 1/6 of all assists. Removing them does in fact move him way down the list and his placement of 2nd or whatever IS an exaggeration of his ability.

go to 1:42 here and watch that pass. look at the replays of this pass. this is typical backstrom. yea it was a layup for Ov. being the great scorer that he is, he didn't shank it. but give credit where its due

 

[The Toews Era*]

Why would you do that though? Your logic is that Backstrom would have 86 points less in his career if Ovechkin was somehow replaced with a black hole. That's true I guess but the problem is that your average winger would still score on half of those passes, and most star centers - which you are comparing him to - don't even play with average wingers.

Ovechkins presence also makes it easier for others to score too. So if you want to do that, youd have to account for the difference in ovy goals vs another wingers, and then also deduct more assists and goals from backstrom for the power play generally being far weaker as well.

 

[txpd]

Ovechkins presence also makes it easier for others to score too. So if you want to do that, youd have to account for the difference in ovy goals vs another wingers, and then also deduct more assists and goals from backstrom for the power play generally being far weaker as well.

Ok....so, having the opposing best defense pair on the ice and their best defensive forwards on the ice with the game plan to keep the puck away from Ovechkin doesn't get Backstrom any credit for getting it there anyway. At the same time it takes away credit for Backstrom passing it to anyone else because everyone is concentrating on Ovechkin.

10-4. I gotcha

 

[The Toews Era*]

Ok....so, having the opposing best defense pair on the ice and their best defensive forwards on the ice with the game plan to keep the puck away from Ovechkin doesn't get Backstrom any credit for getting it there anyway. At the same time it takes away credit for Backstrom passing it to anyone else because everyone is concentrating on Ovechkin.

10-4. I gotcha

Huh? Are you saying teams wouldnt use their PK1 unit vs the caps PP1 if ovechkin wasnt there? What are you even talking about

 

[Phil McKraken]

Ovechkins presence also makes it easier for others to score too. So if you want to do that, youd have to account for the difference in ovy goals vs another wingers, and then also deduct more assists and goals from backstrom for the power play generally being far weaker as well.

The drop in OV's goals is the PP being made weaker - it's already in the equation. If you want to start talking about replacing Ovechkin as a playmaker too you're in the same infinity loop as in the main discussion, because Backstrom is involved in as many of OV's assists as OV is in Backstrom's. It's too little hypothesis and too much speculation.

If you're talking about Ovechkin being generational at helping teammates score without even getting a secondary assist - by being treated by the PK as some uniquely distracting monster threat - you're again being purely speculatory rather than hypothetical. I would say a PK unit with a professional system in place treats every attacker the same, until the attacker is involved enough to actually get a point. A goalie or defenseman isn't going to key in less on James Neal than OV if he digs in the corners or lines up on the faceoff circle for a potential snipe.