[Recently Caps centerman Nicklas Backstrom spoke with Swedish outlet Gefle Dagblad about his recovery from the concussion that has sidelined him since January 3. A translation of the resulting article appears below, courtesy of our good friend Malin.]

"I don’t know when I will be able to play again, but I hope I will be ready for the playoffs."

It was in the game against Calgary on January 3 that Rene Bourque delivered an elbow to the head of Nicklas Bäckström. The elbowing happened in the neutral zone.

"It was an unnecessary hit. I feel like he could have just skated by me instead."

Bourque was suspended five games for that cowardly cheap shot. Since then Bourque has changed teams and he is now playing for the Montreal Canadiens where he is free to play without any restraints or problems.

Bäckström himself on the other hand has yet to play in a single game since he got hurt. He has now missed 15 games and it is still unclear when he will be able to return to the ice.

"I’m getting better, but it takes time," he says.

Bäckis played a couple of shifts after the hit but was then forced to leave the game early. At first the team called it "precautionary action."

"I had migraine symptoms, and since I have had problems with migraines in the past, we thought at first that it could be something like that. But after a few days I felt that I wasn’t 100% fine."

Bäckström took part in a practice a few days after the Calgary game, but he experienced a setback immediately.

"I didn’t feel well, that's the plain and simple description for it. Otherwise I would have just continued to play."

After that, Washington's medical staff decided to stop him from playing hockey for the time being. His orders now are total rest. Bäckis is being kept under close observation. They take no risks with these types of head injuries.

"Two weeks ago I tried to get on the ice for a practice, but I got off after three minutes. It didn’t work. I just wasn’t ready."

How have you dealt with this time away from hockey?

"It’s tough, for sure. I don’t do much, basically I have spent much of my time on the couch napping and resting. Sometimes I've been at the practice rink, but I try to stay away from it as much as possible. It's so frustrating for me to be there right now."

Bäckis is trying to be positive about the situation.

"I have played four full seasons over here without getting hit like this before. I think I have missed just five games in those years, that’s not too bad. So, I have been lucky and now I was out of luck, that’s the way I look at it."

With Nicklas on the shelf the Capitals are fighting to reach the playoffs. It is a extremely tight race in the Eastern conference, and the team currently sits in third place in the East. They lead the Southeast division with just one point ahead of Florida.

"I follow the games of course, and this season it's been a bit up and down."

On Saturday the Washington Capitals are heading to New York to meet the New York Rangers, and it is also time for this season's father's trip when the players' fathers get to spend some time with their sons. Nicklas's father Anders is in town and he is ready to go on the trip with his son.

"Yes, I will probably go on that trip with the team. I’m really excited about it."

When he can play again remains to be seen.

"It’s a process and it must take the time it takes," says Nicklas.

Nicklas Backstrom hasn't played in a game since taking that elbow to the head from Rene Bourque back on January 3. And while the Caps got some measure of closure by (theoretically) taking Bourque to task last night in Montreal, the effects of the hit linger for the Caps' top pivot.

Backstrom recently spoke to Swedish news outlet Aftonbladet about his recovery, and here's the translation of some of what he had to say:

"I’m 'day-to-day' as they say over here, right now. We haven’t really talked much yet about when I can get back on the ice."

"I would be lying if I told you that I have felt 100% fine since it happened, but I don’t have any headaches anymore and I don’t feel nauseous anymore either."

"I still have to take it easy and rest though. We are being extra cautious, given what has happened with all the concussions in the league this year."

The worst thing is the restlessness - he’s not even attending the games at the the Verizon Center, instead he has to watch the games from home.

"The only thing I can do is to just lie here on the couch and try to get better. It's incredibly frustrating, I get so restless, my body just itches to do something. But there's nothing else to do but wait."

Hat tip to Malin on the link and translation

A translation of a story that ran recently in Helsingborgs Dagblad

After being one of the last players to be cut from the Washington Capitals training camp, Mattias Sjogren's NHL career has come to a temporary halt.

"I think I performed well at camp. I think it's a little bit strange that I only got to play in three of the team's seven preseason games. I think I should have had the chance to play in a few more games so that they could see more of what I can bring to the table," says Mattias.

Why he was sent down to Washington's farm team in Hershey he hardly knows himself. "For four weeks the coaches don't say a single word to you, but the fact that they don't talk to you usually means that they are satisfied with what you are doing."

When we catch up with Mattias he sits at his hotel room in Hershey. The change in scenery couldn't have been bigger. Last week he was in the capital of the United States and now he is in a small town in Pennsylvania.
"You would be hard pressed to call this a big town, I think you can call it a podunk town. There's not much going on around here, so I think I'm just going to play hockey and stay at the hotel," he says of the small town which is located 2.5 hours from Washington.

It's been less than a week since the former Lejonet and Rögle player was told that he wouldn't make the big club right away but he has already played two games in the AHL with the Hershey Bears.

"We have won both games and it has gone really well, I have been given a lot of ice time. I'm not surprised by that, I was expecting that they would give me a lot of time on the ice. Some of the coaches here I had at the training camp in Washington too," says Sjögren, who on Sunday had his first day off in a long time.

The game in North America differs quiet a bit from how it's played in Sweden.

"Everything moves really fast over here, the game is played more on the fly. The puck moves in and out of the zones all the time. The coaches like to keep the game simple. Things like using the boards to get the puck out of the zone and just work hard is what they like to see. I like playing on the smaller ice surfaces, I think it suits me."

Even though Mattias is playing in the minors at the moment the dream of playing in the NHL with childhood friend Marcus Johansson is not gone. He can be called up to the big league at any time.

"It's impossible for me to know how big my chances are to get called up. But I think I will have a talk with the coaches, in the long run it won't work to be kept completely in the dark like this."

Recently, Marcus Johansson talked to nwt.se about his off season training program, and what his expectations are for the upcoming season. Here's a translation of that chat. 

For all of August, Marcus Johansson has been on ice with Färjestad, and now Mackan is ready for his second season in the NHL. His first season as the youngest player on the Washington Capitals was a big success.

In preparation for the upcoming season, Marcus has been training under Ulf Karlsson, the former coach of the Swedish national track and field team.

"Last year I trained too much and I was a bit slow in the beginning of the season because of that. Ulf has helped me create a training program that is tailor-made just for me. He is very talented."

It was Marcus's uncle Gunnar Johansson, the former Färjestad coach, that introduced him to Ulf Karlsson.

More muscle weight

"I have worked a lot on my speed and to try to build up my strength and I have put on a few extra kilos of muscle mass. You need that over there. I can already feel that it has given some results. I can remain more stable when I bump into someone on the ice and I also have better balance with the puck in tight situations."

Washington Capitals management praised Marcus both during and after his rookie season. Mackan was the team's youngest player, but he still averaged between 15 and 20 minutes of ice time at the end of the season.

"I got the opportunity to play on both the power play and the penalty kill unit. That's not something I would have expected when I first went over there last year. The coaches told me after the season that I had succeeded beyond their expectations, that they liked me as a two-way player and that they looked forward to seeing me next season."

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How has the summer been?

"It's been good but a little different from previous summers. I made some changes in my training and it feels pretty good actually."

What kind of changes?

"I changed trainers. Now I work with a guy named Sebastian Falk. He is an old [speed] skater and I think that he can help me become a better player, so far it has worked out well.  I'm basically working on my skating. I want to be faster on my skates. Right now that is what I'm trying to improve. It feels good and we are working hard down in Gävle."

It sounds kind of silly that a professional hockey player that has skated all his life is suppose to learn how to skate again. What are you doing exactly?   

"It's not about me learning to skate again. It's more about changing minute little details that can make me a better player. It's not like I'm the fastest hockey player out there, but yeah, I want to be faster on my skates I think that will help my hockey career."

It's been a few months since the season ended, have you been able to look back and reflect on what happened?

"I have to say that I'm still incredibly disappointed. It felt good after the first playoff round and then we lost in four straight games to Tampa. It came as a shock and I felt totally empty inside after that. But at the same time, if we don't play better than that, and I have to say that Tampa played really well; they played smart against us and had a good goalie, they definitely deserved the win but I don't know, we should have been better, and if I'm talking about me personally  I underachieved in the playoffs and I just can't do that in that situation."

Can you elaborate some on that, how did you underachieve?

"I don't know. I guess I'm the type of player that is expected to score goals and rack up points. But things didn't work at all for me and when that happens you have to do a lot of soul searching and that's what I've been doing."

So after all that soul searching what did you come up with?

"That I underachieved."

Could you have done anything different?

"I have played in the NHL playoffs four times now and you just can't compare it to the regular season. Everything is so much tougher. In the playoffs you have to play at the top of your game every second of every game otherwise you won't move on to the next round. At the same time everything has to click for the team; your goalie has to be good and we had some bad luck with injuries. But at the same time this year I think it looks much better than it has in a long time. I hope we can learn from our mistakes and simply just play better in the playoffs both as team and as individuals."

How much can you influence on the way you play in Washington?

"I don't really have much of a say in that. That is up to the coaches and the organization to decide about. But at the same time that is something you have to talk about as a leader and as a player, and I feel that we have done that now and hopefully that can lead to bigger and better things in the future."

Do you think that you should change the way you play? Last season you changed to a more defensive scheme.

"Yeah, that's correct. We tried something completely different because  in the previous year our defense wasn't that good. But it's hard to know really, we've never been there, we've never been one of the top teams at the end of the playoffs. We will see when we get over there again, I think we will work on a new system. But exactly what that new system is I'm not at liberty to say."

It feels like you have been one of the favorites to win for the last couple of years. What do you have to do to finally take that last step?

"We have to work together as a team - all the time. That is what we have been working towards but so far we haven't been able to make it work the way we want it to work. When you don't work well together as a team you won't win in the playoffs, it's that simple. You just have to look at teams like Boston and Vancouver last year, and Detroit is really good too."

Do you think you will spend your whole career in Washington?

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[Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom recently did a wide-ranging interview with Swedish outlet Gefle Dagblad. The translation of that interview appears below.]

It’s been a month since your team got bounced from the playoffs and you have had some time to put things in perspective. And you had a thumb injury that prevented you from participating in the World Championship. How’s your thumb feeling now?

It had to heal on its own, they couldn’t do anything to speed up the process. It was a fracture at first but then I tore the ligament and everything. But I feel much better now. I have regained feeling in the thumb and I can move it much better now.

How much did the thumb injury really affect you?

Of course I was affected by it, and of course you want to be 100%. But that’s hockey, injuries happen. You just have to accept the reality as it it and live with it.

It was not like I had broken foot so that I couldn’t skate. But it sucks to get this type of injury, sort of a "semi-injury" with just seven or eight games left before the playoffs. But there is nothing I can do about that now.

How do you view your season? You produced far fewer points this year than you did last year.

For me personally the stats mean a lot. I get judged based on how I produce - that’s just the way it is. But as a team I really think we had a decent regular season. We improved our defense, and when you do that you almost automatically score fewer goals. That was done with purpose and intent.

And I think it still felt good for us against the Rangers.

But then came Tampa - and I must say that they had us fooled completely with the way they played. We had no solutions. We couldn’t find a way to fix it or correct our mistakes. We couldn't solve them. They had a goalkeeper who stood on his head at times and stopped us. It's a little bit annoying actually. Frustrating.

What exactly does the team lack?

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Here now is part 2 to the exclusive interview that Pavel Lysenkov and Sovetsky Sport snagged with Alex Ovechkin in Moscow, following his donation to the youth hockey school of Dynamo Moscow.

It's only two-and-a-half years until Sochi. Are we ready for the Olympics?

"Not yet. We need to take a lesson from the Canadians, who painstakingly prepared for Vancouver. They not only wisely selected their players, but they also thoroughly studied their opponents, both NHL and every KHL player who was on Team Russia."

"Canadian GM Steve Yzerman personally studied how many Russians played. He knew us inside and out."

Maybe we should go to the Canadian system, where the GM is responsible for everything, and under him are the coaches and players?

"I don't know as far as the system goes. But I don't see anything wrong in this if we copy the Canadian system in preparation. There has to be a video trainer, we need a concise plan for each game. "Run and gun and we'll meet at the net?" That's not going to work in Sochi."

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If you thought Alex Ovechkin's offseason consisted solely of a whirlwind of hookahs and beer, you'd be mistaken. Alex has also been playing the role of dutiful role-model in helping out youth hockey programs at his old alma-mater, Dynamo Moscow, as we see in this interview with Pavel Lysenkov in today's issue of Sovetsky Sport.

On Saturday, Russian National Team forward Alexander Ovechkin participated in a charity event where he played the role of ambassador for the Gillette company, presenting a check from the company for one million rubles to Dynamo's youth hockey program. Following the event Ovechkin gave an exclusive interview to Sovetsky Sport, and today we present the first part of the interview.

The event took place on the seventh floor of the "European" Shopping Mall, where the rink is located. For those who aren't aware, the practice rink for Washington is also located on the seventh floor of a large mall, so Ovechkin felt right at home.

Alexander first conducted a master class for fans, and at the request of the public he demonstrated the trick he performed at the All Star game in Montreal where he picked up the puck on the shaft of his stick. He also showed off the "puck between the skates" feint invented by Firsov. And if somebody had asked him to demonstrate his well-known behind-the head goal he made against Phoenix, a highly animated t-shirt clad Alexander would have immediately raced out on the ice and roared down the rink, but it was now time to start the official part of the ceremony.

The Gillette company made a charitable contribution in the amount of 1,000,000 rubles (for verification, the amount was also spelled out on the check) for the development of youth hockey. Ovechkin presented this check to the director of the Dynamo school, Mikhail Titov. In place of the standard autograph on the check, Sasha boldly wrote out "Thanks for everything! From Ovi".

"How could it be otherwise?" asked Ovechkin surprisingly at the start of our interview. "This is my alma mater. I grew up in Dynamo. This is where I was pointed down the true course. If you have the opportunity, you have to help."

When you were young did famous players give you any equipment?

"Oh yeah, during the Spartak Cup I was given Zhamnov's stick. Another time Larionov gave me a stick. That was a long time ago but I still remember it. And now I understand just how much it means for the young kids when stars of the game give them gifts."

An interesting picture has been making the rounds on the internet, of a young Ovechkin in a Buffalo jacket. Where did you get it?

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