The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

Even though he did it against a goalie that plays for the Red Wings, you gotta think David Backes still had a very good night.

Because he was so insanely jealous of Mike Green’s accomplishment last night, Backes scored a Texas hat trick, including the game-winner in a 5-4 win over Detroit, to also reach the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his professional career.

It is, in fact, the first time he’s scored 30 goals since a USHL season in 2001-02. It’s a dramatic improvement from last year’s campaign, in which he scored just 13 goals in 72 games. This is just Backes’ second multi-goal game of the season (the previous one was a two-goal night against Florida).

Backes is also part of the reason the Blues have played so well of late and made this very nice little playoff push. After tonight, he’s scored 12 goals in his last 14 games (compared to 18 in the prior 64). That’s not to take anything away from the play of The Oshie (14 points in his last 15 games) or Chris Mason (14-5-1, 2.35 GAA, .914 sv% in his last 20), of course, but David Backes has had an incredible improvement in production this season despite having so-so linemates. Brads Boyes (okay!) and Winchester (eesh) are his most regular partners this season after being paired with Jay McClement and Lee Stempniak for the bulk of last year.

Tonight he was paired with Boyes and Andy MacDonald. Andy Murray might wanna consider keeping that line together.

But still, think about that: he scored 30 goals with Brad freakin’ Winchester on his line. Wow!

Elsewhere…

Boston 2, Ottawa 1

Earlier today it was reported that Ottawa had a 0.000004 percent chance of making the playoffs, and I was desperately hoping that the one-in-25-million shot was gonna pull it out. All they needed was to win out, have Montreal and Florida lose out and then have several other teams play sub-.500 hockey. To no avail. Marc Savard closed the Sens’ season for all intents and purposes with 16:58 to go in the third period. Poor guys.

Montreal 5, New York Islanders 1

Oh that was the other thing. The Habs won. Mainly because Kyle Okposo (who’s been a beast lately), Joey MacDonald, he of the breathtaking saves the last week or so, and Mark Streit enjoyed some press box popcorn tonight. Their playoff hopes, oddly, are still afloat.

Carolina 4, New York Rangers 2

Meanwhile the Blueshirts are fading quickly. They’re 2-2-1 in their last five after going 7-2-0 in the previous nine. The Panthers, by the way, have won three in a row and sit just two points back with a game in hand. Wuh ohs.

Calgary 2, Dallas 1

Well Jarome Iginla has two goals in his last two games after not scoring in his previous seven, so maybe that’s gonna do okay for the Flames come playoff time. Of course, no one else apart from Craig Conroy (who scored the game-winner) can score for the Flames right now, so maybe that’s not gonna do okay come playoff time. In other shocking news, Miikka Kiprusoff did not suck. That’s one game in a row for him!

San Jose 2, Edmonton 1

Another dominant road performance for the Sharks, who barely snuck past a terrible, terrible Oilers team with literally no hope left for their season. Dan Boyle and Jonathan Cheechoo are the only two guys that have scored for the Sharks in the last two games, which is kinda funny and weird if you think about it. By the way, guess which of those two guys has more goals this year. The answer won’t surprise you even slightly. (It’s Dan Boyle, 16-11.)

Phoenix 2, Los Angeles 1

Al Montoya is an animal! One goal against in 120 minutes of hockey on 44 shots. Unstoppable. Funny thing, too, is that Scottie Upshall has six goals and four assists in 15 games with Phoenix, which is especially impressive if you consider he had seven goals and 14 assists in 55 games with Philly. Good for him.

Anaheim 6, Vancouver 5 (SO)

Of COURSE the Ducks had to give up a loser point to the Canucks tonight. Why wouldn’t they? Calgary had just regained the division lead with its nice little win over Dallas, but you can’t count on Anaheim for anything except playing like assholes. God I hate the Ducks.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 12:51 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.