backes

( Photo Credit: NBC Sports )


By: Yanni Latzanakis  |  Follow Me On Twitter @yanlatz
On July 1, 2016, the Boston Bruins signed veteran forward David Backes to a five year $30 million contract. He has not quite lived up to his $6 million yearly valuation in a Bruins uniform despite continuing to work hard to remain in the Bruins lineup. The 35-year-old veteran forward is entering his fourth year of the deal and has recently revealed his offseason training to try and keep his NHL career alive.
After a recent preseason game against the New Jersey Devils, in which Backes was arguably the best forward on the ice, he revealed what he decided to do differently this offseason. He was skating at his old high school back home in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota when he got a text from a friend saying that their sister-in-law was teaching figure skating on the other rink and the girls would love for him to go and say hello.
Backes willingly went over to the rink to chat with the girls and ended up joining them in some skating drills. That is when David Backes realized that he could not do skating drills that these 12-year-old girls were doing easily. He couldn’t believe that he could not do the drills as a professional hockey player. So, David went home and thought about the eye-opening experience and decided to call the skating coach named Katie McDonough and ask for her help.

Backes hopes that this new training in the offseason will pay off for this upcoming season as he battles for a spot on the Bruins roster. Backes was scratched numerous times last season and even games five, six, and seven of the Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues.

Last season, Backes had his worst season in the NHL pointwise with just seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points in 70 games played. Backes knows that he can return to the hockey player that he once was and is doing everything in his power to continue his career with the Black ‘N Gold at the NHL level. There is no doubt that David Backes brings a lot of leadership and experience to the Bruins lineup. With the infusion of youth prospects into the veteran core group of the Bruins, it is a perfect recipe to teach the younger players for the future but take another stab at a Stanely Cup Championship at the same time.

You have to respect David Backes for his recognition of his struggles on the ice and how he is working hard to get back to the level of play that he is capable at this stage of his career. We will see if the offseason skating has a big impact on Backes’ play but as of September 30, all signs point to David Backes making the opening night roster against the Dallas Stars on October 3rd.

Check out the Black N’ Gold Hockey Podcast episode 147 that we recorded on 9-30-19 below! You can find our show on many worldwide platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Stitcher.

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