RALEIGH, N.C. – David Backes waited 13 seasons and 928 regular-season games for it, and now the 34-year-old Bruins forward is going to the Stanley Cup Final for the very first time in his distinguished, standout NHL career.
Certainly a chance at a Cup was part of the reason he signed a five-year contract with the Bruins in free agency, and the scenario coming to life left him with a massive grin on his face after the Cup Final-clinching win.
It also left him emotional in the moments that followed the victory as the reality set in that he was realizing one of his long-held NHL dreams.
“I’ve thought about this moment for a long time, of playing for that ultimate prize you dream of when you’re a kid. Now it’s reality. It’s us against one other team, and one of us is going home with that Stanley Cup,” said Backes, who was then asked if this Cup Final could become a ‘Win one for Backes’ type of affair given that so many veteran B’s players already have Cup wins on their resume. "We’re concentrated on the Boston Bruins winning a Stanley Cup. With this group of brothers we’ve created here, we’re all in for our team, and whoever the opponent is, we’re gonna face them head on."
Backes wasn’t a big impact player in Boston’s 4-0 win in Game 4 over the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Thursday night while clocking under 10 minutes of ice time, but he’s made a positive impact on the B’s during their playoff run. He certainly brought some physical thump to the lineup in the first round against the Maple Leafs, and the B’s won three in a row vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets after he was inserted into the lineup for the second round.
Backes scored a goal in Game 2 of the conference final against the Hurricanes, and has a solid two goals and five points in the 11 games he’s suited up for during the postseason. So the hard-nosed, hard-hitting power forward certainly played a role in the Black and Gold getting to this point in the postseason, and it’s something his teammates are appreciative of while they’d clearly love to win a Cup for him after all this time.
“It was awesome to see the passion and the emotion that he had on his face after this game,” said Brad Marchand. “He’s been such a huge part of our group. He’s such a great leader. We build so much emotion off the way that he plays, and he’s such a phenomenal guy and great teammate. He’s had an incredible career. When you see a guy that’s been around for that long and he hasn’t had an opportunity to play for a Cup, and then he finally has that opportunity? It’s a lot of emotions.
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“When you play in this league for a long time, you start to appreciate and understand how hard it is to win, and how few opportunities you get to win that Cup. We have that opportunity to play for it this year and you can see how excited he was. It was awesome to see.”
The best part of all of this is still yet to be decided.
Obviously it’s a great story if Backes finally gets that Cup he’s been chasing for more than a decade, and he's going to do that against the St. Louis Blues team that he captained prior to jumping to Boston. In a Stanley Cup Final where storylines and narratives rule the day, that will be one of the best ones for the Bruins.
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