David Backes Should No Longer Be The Blues’ Captain
It is time for David Backes to be demoted from his role as captain of the St. Louis Blues.
This opinion will be unpopular, but it did not come lightly.
Backes’ most glaring problem is that he fails to come up with the correct answers to motivate his team for big games.
Let us start with the recent playoff failures. Not only was Backes a part of those failures, he was the captain and face of those failures.
First, like other players on the roster, his production decreases come playoff time. Backes averages .64 points per game in the regular season, but dips to .45 PPG in the playoffs. That’s nearly a 30% drop off in production. Contrast that with the last two Stanley Cup captains in Jonathan Toews and Dustin Brown.
Toews averages .90 PPG in the regular season and .87 in the playoffs, a 3.3% drop off. While Dustin Brown actually sees an uptick in production, averaging .55 PPG in the regular season and .59 PPG in the playoffs. That’s a 6.8% increase from the regular season to the playoffs. No wonder he has hoisted the Cup twice as a captain.
Take the interview below for example. Backes talks about not being able to make adjustments and solve Minnesota’s attack in the first round elimination in April.
Backes’ most glaring problem is that he fails to come up with the correct answers to motivate his team for big games.
Beyond that, any answer he does have comes in the form of bad penalties and trying to muck up the game. Take game 1 of last year’s playoffs against Minnesota, for example. After giving up an empty net goal, Backes takes a frustration penalty only to have Alexander Steen score a shorthanded goal seconds later. Had Backes not committed that penalty, the Blues may have still been in that game.
Someone needs to point out that the NHL has become a speed game, and the Blues are being left in the dust. There is no need to dump and chase when you can dart around the defense and keep possession in the zone.
It also lessens the need to playing extra physical for the faster team, keeping them less fatigued throughout the season and into the playoffs.
The Minnesota Wild, who eliminated the Blues from the playoffs in the first round this past season, finished last in hits per game at 16.1. The Blackhawks, who won the Stanley Cup, finished next to last with 16.5 HPG.
Backes’ 104 penalty minutes would not only have made him the penalty minutes leader on over half of the league’s teams, but if he had played for Minnesota or Chicago, Backes would have accounted for 14.3% and 17.4% of the teams’ penalty minutes respectively. For the Blues, who accrued 904 PIMs for the fourth highest in the league, he accounted for only 11.5% of the time in the penalty box.
It would seem his example of playing rough and riling up the team worked, as the Blues are the only team in hockey to have two players finish in the top 15 in PIMs last year (Backes and 4th line forward Ryan Reaves).
As was said in Remember The Titans, “Attitude reflects leadership, captain.”
However, you cannot demote Backes without a replacement. I will profile possible candidates as well as my personal choice for who should be the new captain.
Next: The Case For Alexander Steen