The hockey gods finally had granted David Backes his wish. After 13 years of some very hard hockey, the Bruins forward finally has the chance to play for the Stanley Cup. But those extraterrestrials are an untrustworthy sort. For after giving Backes his long awaited chance to play for the sport’s biggest prize, they turned […]
The hockey gods finally had granted David Backes his wish. After 13 years of some very hard hockey, the Bruins forward finally has the chance to play for the Stanley Cup.
But those extraterrestrials are an untrustworthy sort. For after giving Backes his long awaited chance to play for the sport’s biggest prize, they turned around and said, “OK, now you’ll have to climb over some of your best friends to get it.”
Standing between Backes and the Cup now is the team he once captained, the St. Louis Blues.
Now, this is no Sophie’s Choice for Backes, mind you. He’ll gladly elbow his old buddies out of the way to grab the Cup. Face washes will be available to all comers. That’s the way hockey is, was and always will be. All sports have that cut-throat element. But it’s safe to say this is not how he would have scripted it.
Asked if it was more bittersweet or motivational for him that it’s the Blues the B’s are playing, Backes leaned distinctively to the former.
“It would have been fine to make the finals in different years and then each (team) could have had a shot at it, maybe,” Backes said. “But now it’s all about in this room. There’s still some good friends, one of my best friends (Alex Pietrangelo) is on that team, he’s the captain of their team. But I told him, ‘I’m going to love him now, I’m going to love him afterwards, but I’m going to hate him for the next three weeks.’ That’s a mutual decision that we’re going to battle out butts off for this ultimate prize.
