Backes tough on emotional night
BRUINS NOTEBOOK
ST. LOUIS — David Backes returned to the city and rink where he established himself as an elite NHL player yesterday, and judging from the media throng that turned out for the morning skate, you could tell the Bruins winger made a huge impact in St. Louis, both on and off the ice, with his magnetic personality and charity work.
And Blues coach Ken Hitchcock gave an insight into Backes’ development and the special coach-player dynamic the pair had.
“He went from book smart to street smart. He’s a very learned guy, and he absorbed a lot of information from the coaching staff,” Hitchcock said. “We had a great relationship, but it was a relationship where he embraced learning about being a captain. I would send him material on a weekly basis or a monthly basis, stuff to read on other captains in other situations. He took it from the book part to where he became street savvy, where he understood the workings of the dressing room, the workings of leadership committees and stuff like that. You’ve got to give a guy like David a lot of credit because he made himself a really good captain. He was always a good player for us. His sense of timing, his ability to turn games around, his vocal leadership was tremendous. But what he did more than anything, he learned to be a real captain, not just a good captain. That took our team quite frankly to a whole other level.”
Backes echoed Hitchcock’s sentiments.
“He was great for me, five years working together as captain and coach. He did give me a little bit of homework, and he always had some saying for every situation,” Backes said. “Sometimes you’d leave his office wondering what the heck he just said. But there’s a lot of wisdom mixed in there and a lot of experience. He helped me become a better player and better person. We have a relationship that will transcend playing the game and will continue after the game of hockey.”
When Backes stepped onto the ice for his first shift last night, he got a nice hand from the crowd. But when the video tribute to him was played during the first TV timeout, he received a thunderous standing ovation.
“It was special, certainly something I never experienced before,” Backes said after the 5-3 win. “It was great to be back in the building. I think thankfully we jumped out to a decent lead because trying to bottle up everything that was going on on the ice was tough, no question about it. The guys played amazing, we got two points out of the game, and I had the best seat in the house for most of the third.”
Backes got that seat when he went after former teammate Joel Edmundson for nailing David Krejci in the back while the B’s center was trying to field an aerial puck at 15:34 of the second. Krejci was shaken up and had to go to the room, but he returned. Backes got 17 minutes in penalties.
“I felt like they were trying to get the game back by intimidating us and hitting us all over the place,” Backes said. “You see a guy like Krejci go down, I don’t think it really matters how it happened. We’ve got to put an end to this. I tried to put an end to it. Seventeen minutes after or a guy’s bloody in the face? I think seven would have been sufficient. But the guys killed the penalty off and did a great job.”
Backes appreciated that his teammates understood how important this game was for him.
“They were phenomenal, and ( Patrice Bergeron) did a great job before the game, saying, ‘This game means a lot to one of our teammates,’ ” Backes said. “It got guys focused and turned it up a notch. And I think the guys responded with one heck of a win.”
Carlo shines
After having a few rookietype games, Brandon Carlo bounced back with a (fortunate) goal and played well defensively, especially in the absence of Adam McQuaid for the last two periods. He was plus-2 in 19:57.
“In the third period, they were coming hard at us, but he was patient. He didn’t throw the puck away. At one point, he had three guys on him. He protected it, turned around and made a great pass,” coach Claude Julien said. “That’s a guy that’s growing and getting better. We’ve had to live with some mistakes along the way, but it starts paying off.”
Carlo was pleased with his performance.
“That was great. For me, it was a little bit of a bounce back from the defensive end on my game,” Carlo said. “I’ve been struggling a little bit lately, but I felt really well in that situation. It was good to be able to step up in that situation when those guys went down ( Colin Miller also was lost for a portion of the third) and they needed me a little bit more. I was glad to go out there and keep it simple.”
Hayes, Liles sit
Julien shook up the lineup last night, sitting Jimmy Hayes and John-Michael Liles, who had returned to the lineup Sunday against Carolina after six weeks out with a concussion.
Frank Vatrano was bumped up to the Backes-Krejci line, and Ryan Spooner centered a line between Tim Schaller and Riley Nash. Vatrano had a goal and an assist, and Spooner had an assist.