Backes admits still ‘a huge regret’ that he wasn’t able to win Cup with Blues

BOSTON – David Backes is getting plenty of chances to rewind back to his 10-year career with the St. Louis Blues while a member of the Bruins going up against them in the Stanley Cup Final beginning with Game 1 on Monday night.

And it certainly sounds like it all still stings for the 35-year-old Backes while recounting his decade with St. Louis, including a distinguished stint as their captain, where the Blues were never able to win a Cup, and never even made it to a Cup Final. It was that final 2015-16 NHL season where the Blues made it to the conference final before falling to the San Jose Sharks, and afterward Backes had an emotional reaction knowing he was entering free agency and probably not returning.

Even now Backes admits that he’s still “regretful” about his time with the Blues where he became an All-Star and garnered Selke Trophy votes, but never was able to get his name immortalized on the Cup.

Marchand absent from practice by "good to go"

“Part of me that’s regretful is that we didn’t get to a Final or win a Cup while I was there. I said that in my interviews leaving there on July 1 [and] when I was at [Alex Pietrangelo’s] wedding,” said Backes. “It’s a huge regret that I’ll always have that we weren’t able to get the job done. But the truth is that there’s been 52 years’ worth of guys that probably have that same regret being alumni and saying that would have been a great city to win a Cup in. That being said, I don’t know that there’s a bad city to win a Cup in, so take that with a grain of salt.

“I remember the feelings I had with a little bit of sadness, a little bit of regret with the group we had that we could’ve got the job done. In my heart of hearts, I had let myself say that this was a group that was going to get it done that year. It was the furthest we’d been and it was an amazing group just like [this year’s Bruins] where guys were sacrificing for each other. They were thinking about other’s first rather than themselves or statistical components, and that’s really where it all boils down for me.”

Some of that regret will probably always be there for Backes regardless of what happens this season, but the chance to get to the Cup Final and finally hoist the hardware with the Bruins is giving him that golden opportunity. It will be a bit bittersweet obviously for Backes going up against his old team where one of them has to be a loser at the end of the series.