Nicklas Bäckström extinguishes all dreams of playing in the Olympics; both the Swedish hockey fans’ dreams and possibly his own as well.
– The Olympics, I have given up, Bäckström told Gefle Dagblad after Brynäs’ big victory with 5-1 in the quarter-finals against KalPa from Kuopio in the Champions Hockey League.
As Bäckström has gotten better and better in the SHL, his name has been mentioned more and more in the conversation surrounding the Swedish team for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina in February. In connection with Tre Kronor gathering Olympic-current players in Stockholm this summer, the national team captain Sam Hallam did not rule out Bäckström as a possible Olympic player.
But on Wednesday evening “Bäckis” himself put an end to all speculation.
– Well, well, well, definitely not the Olympics. I have given up on that. It’s not something I even thought about. There will be nothing, said Bäckström to Gefle Dagblad.
Bäckström’s Olympic record stands at six points (1+5) in four games in the Olympics in Vancouver 2010 and four points (0+4) and a silver medal after five games in the Olympics in Sochi 2014. There will be no Olympics in Milan 2026. It is clearly stated now.
However, Bäckström was included in the Swedish gross squad for the Olympics, and in November he got a chance to try national team hockey with Tre Kronor for the first time since 2017. However, he withdrew his offer to the Finland Hockey Games with a slight injury. Sam Hallam contacted us this time too, for the Swiss Hockey Games in Zurich on December 11-14.
Nicklas Bäckström refused.
– Sam and I have had a good dialogue. It didn’t quite fit this time. In fact, I never really thought about the national team, although it was fun to be selected. My focus is on doing my best for Brynäs, said Bäckström to GD.
Brynäs has been relatively strong in the Champions Hockey League, even if Bäckström did not directly score points: against KalPa, Bäckström played in a chain with Oskar Lindblom (formerly in the Flyers and Sharks) and Anton Rödin, but went both goalless and pointless from the game. In five CHL games, Bäckström has been registered for three goal-scoring passes.
Read also: Bäckström enjoys everyday life in Brynäs: “Breathe hockey”
But in the SHL, Nicklas Bäckström has started to get going properly after a slow start in his return to Swedish ice hockey. That after just 47 games in three years in the Washington Capitals, and basically two full years off the ice. Considering his track record, Brynäsfansen expected great deeds from the 38-year-old center from Valbo AIF: 1,105 games in the NHL’s regular season for Washington with a result of 1,033 points (271+762) and another 139 games and 114 points (38+76) in the playoffs, including the playoff that in 2018 gave Bäckström a Stanley Cup title.
For the Brynäs fans, it was a harbinger of a nail-biting journey to the top of the SHL and the SM gold. For Bäckström, a chance to show that, despite the severe injury that kept him out for so long, he could still play at the highest level outside the NHL.
– I could not have expected this a year ago, Bäckström told NHL.com in connection with the Global Series games in Stockholm in November. But I got the opportunity to come back and play and I took it. It’s been really fun and the league is great. Several really good players and the crowd has been awesome. It’s been awesome.
– It was about the love of the sport, said Bäckström. When you start to approach the last year of your career as a hockey player, you realize how much you want to keep doing it. I think everyone is like that. You want to keep playing as long as you can. For the love of the sport. We’re taking it one year at a time right now, and then we’ll see how this season goes.
It was a somewhat slow start in the SHL, but things have gotten better and better: in the first eight games, Bäckström scored a modest six points (0+6) by Bäckström standards. The first goal did not come until the ninth game. In the last six games in the SHL, “Bäckis” has been registered for seven points (0+7) and twice he has been over a playing time of 21:20. After 24 games and before Thursday night’s classic rival meeting at Bortais against Leksand, Bäckström stands on 20 points (2+18).
Nicklas Bäckström is on the way.
But not for the Olympics. He has given that up.
