After nine points his last four games, the NHL on Monday named Nicklas Backstrom as the league’s “Third Star” for last week.
The career point-a-game player joined Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers and Toronto’s Auston Matthews in the group after three goals and six assists against Tampa Bay (1g, 2a), Pittsburgh (1a), New Jersey (1g, 3a), and Philadelphia (1g). On the season as a whole, the 29-year-old center has three goals and 11 points, the latter of which is good enough for a tie for first place on the team with Evgeny Kuznetsov and his 11 assists.
Backstrom is well on his way to another great outing in 2017-18. After racking up 63 assists last season (his highest total since 68 in 2009-10), he’s already more than one-eighth of the way to equaling that mark.