Nicklas Bäckström - Mitt Sommarlov

I don’t know how it is in the States but in Sweden all school children have to write an essay about what they did during their Summer vacation. it’s called Mitt Sommarlov, and it’s about that time of year so without further ado, this is Nicklas Bäckström’s Mitt Sommarlov.  

(I’m sure he would have loved to write it himself but he was unfortunately busy with improving his uppercut. And resting after visiting what seems like every Children’s hospital in Sweden.)

I’m sure we all remember what he did on May the 16th.

Right after he got back to Sweden he moved in to his new house. 

via web24.twitpic.com

Naturally he choose a guy named Peter Forsberg to build his house, go figure.

June the 17th

And speaking of Forsberg he was one of the participants in Nicklas’ new golf tournament. The purpose of the tournament was to collect money for a new foundation, Gefle Sports and Future Foundation that Nicklas co-founded with three others. The Foundation’s goal is to award two scholarships per year and  give the rest of the profit to a good cause - this year the children’s wing at Gävle hospital was the beneficiary.

Nicklas:

 "Thanks to all the interest this tournament has gathered we are able to help a lot of kids witch feels great because it’s a good cause.  Me and the others that are taking part in this have been very fortunate in life and the fact that we can help children that haven’t had it as easy as we have and give them some hope for the future feels incredible."

There is an old Swedish saying "What happens in Gävle stays in Gävle"

So while you can see pictures like this of Ovie.

via lh6.ggpht.com

Nicky has to be shipped off to an island before you get any party pictures.

And when Bäckis do get caught on camera with a literal army of ladies it looks like this:

During the Summer Bäckis participated in three charity games with the Icebreakers, a charity team that Peter Forsberg and Markus Näslund started nine years ago that collects money for sick and handicapped children.

The first game of the year was played in Ramsele on August 3. Ramsele literally means 'Calm water of ravens' There are 850 people living there and 1183 bought tickets to the game. This is the barn they played in.

  pic and following tweets are courtesy of @jonhaggqvist 

Nicklas played the whole game with an Atlanta Thrashers-t-shirt under his jersey.

Either he didn’t have money to buy one for himself or he borrowed one from Tobias Enström.

Bäckis and Foppa found each other well on the ice. The present and the past on the ice together.

Game number two was in Karskrona on the 12 of August.

Game number three was played  in Västerås on the 13 of August. Since the Icebreakers started nine years ago they have collected 3.5 million kronor. This summer alone they collected 800 000 kronor. On every game day the players spend a good portion of the day at the local Children’s hospital and  when you listen to interviews they all say that while it’s of course to play hockey it’s the time with the children that makes it all worth while.

It is not often as a grown up that I get to have that kid-on-Christmas feeling but I definitely had that when I was at the game in Västerås. To get the opportunity to watch the player that made me fall in love with hockey (in what is likely his last game) and the player that changed me from being a normal hockey-fan to someone who, well, would write something like this play together on the same line was pretty great.

When Bäckis found himself some downtime between the hospital visits and training he treated himself to a traditional Swedish barbecue.

Last week Nicklas visited the Children’s wing at Gävle hospital

Bäckis says in this video ( a must see even if you don't understand Swedish) that "It feels good for us to give something back and hopefully the kids enjoy it as much as we do. We just want to play some ping-pong, play games and just hang out with the kids."

There is some talk about the failures last year and the upcoming season and that it’s very hard to win and you need luck but it's basically the same stuff as the things he said in this interview. He jokes and says that he do have ten years to win so hopefully he will make it eventually. (which made me shake a angry fist at the computer screen). 

This is a article from Gefle Dagblad.

Yesterday the children's wing at Gävle Hospital had 100 000 reason to rejoice. The reason-that was the surplus from Nicklas Bäckström's charity golf tournament earlier in the summer, the tournament had hockey stars like Peter Forsberg and Douglas Murray in attendance.  

"Amazing , I feel all warm and happy inside" says child clinic director Lena Selinder.

A murmur of amazement went through the room and there were a lot of ohh and ahs when Nicklas Bäckström and his posse Ove Molin, Anders "Masken" Carlsson and Mats Bengtsson delivered not only the big check to My Aréen-Westberg and Lena Selinder but cakes and ice cream as well.  (Birthday boy Evan got an autograph from his idol Nicklas Bäckström. When asked how many years he is? he responds quickly - one, two, three fingers!)There were a lot of excitement in the air, but Lena Selinder couldn't say how the money would be spent just yet.

"We haven’t decided yet, but it will be used to brighten children's lives.  Maybe gifts, tickets for the movies or money so that they can go out and eat dinner with their families.  Some of our kids must stay in their beds for a long time and they have asked for video games but we are a bit behind with the technology," says Lena Selinder.

And 100 000 SWE kronor must be enough for a lot of things?

"It’s great for the kids. But also for us who work here, now we can do that little extra things for them.

Both the  kids, and adult doctors wanted to have their picture taken with Nicklas Bäckström. Nicklas willl return to Washington next Thursday to begin his fourth NHL season. The goal this seson is a given for "Bäckis", who has become one of the league's biggest stars - to go further in the playoffs.

During the summer, he has been training hard as usual with the former professional wight lifter Anders Bergström. [Bergström is the goofy looking man in this video Ed note]

"Yeah it has worked well in the past.  We have tried to focus on things I  need to improve the most in  particular  my skating  and leg strength, "says Bäckström while he signs another hockey stick.

There  will be a charity golf tournament next summer too but where the money goes haven’t been decided.  It may very well go to the children's hospital again, the only thing that’s been stipulated is that the money will go to a good cause.

The idea is that the foundation will award a promising golfer and a promising hockey player with a scholarship each year. The chosen golf player will receive the scholarship this autumn but the first hockey player isn’t chosen until next year.

Bäckis will return to Washington in two days if he doesn't get lost on the way to the flygplatsen and hopefully he will not return to Sweden until late in June next year and we get to watch stuff like this for a little bit longer this upcoming season.