Backes Set the Tone Against Arizona

BOSTON- David Backes has not had it easy this season. And that's putting it mildly.
The veteran forward missed the first five games of the year as he battled diverticulitis, before suiting up for a five-game stretch in late October.
That return was short-lived. Despite his bout with the illness subsiding, the 33-year-old required surgery to remove part of his colon on Nov. 2 in an effort to prevent any further flare-ups.

Backes was expected to have an estimated recovery time of eight weeks. But that timeline meant nothing to the hulking winger. He returned in less than four, providing quite the boost to a group missing his veteran presence on and off the ice.
That presence was on full display Thursday night as Backes, playing in just his nith game of the year, potted his first two goals of the season to help pace the Bruins to their seventh win in nine games with a 6-1 drubbing of the Arizona Coyotes at TD Garden.
"He's a huge leader for our team," said Brad Marchand, who added a goal and an assist. "He steps up all over the place - in the room, on the ice, on the bench. He's a big void when he's not playing. So we're very lucky to have him back, he stepped up big tonight and, you know, really turned that game around for us."

Boston was sputtering a bit in the second period before Backes struck for back-to-back goals within a five-minute span. After Marchand scored just 15 seconds into the game off a strong cross-crease feed from David Pastrnak, the Bruins struggled to find much traction and found themselves in a tie game late in the middle frame.
That's where Backes came in. It all began with a timely pinch from Matt Grzelcyk, who delivered the puck to Riley Nash at the middle of the blue line. Nash ripped a wrister to towards the net with Backes - who tallied his 500th career point against Nashville on Monday - showing off his patented hand-eye coordination with a tip past Scott Wedgewood for a 2-1 lead at 13:54.
"It's been a while coming for David," said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy. "For him, I think it was important. And he's a well-liked guy in the room, so then guys were genuinely happy. He's scored a lot of goals in this league - 500 points - so you knew it was going to come…his bread and butter, hang out in the dirty areas and then the other one was great."

That other one came just 5:12 later with a terrific individual effort that started in the neutral zone. Backes tracked Coyotes defenseman Alex Goligoski through the neutral zone and initiated a turnover, before breaking in all alone on Wedgewood and beating him glove side to put Boston up by two with 54 seconds to go in the period.
"I was hoping he would get a hat trick there," said Tuukka Rask, who made 20 saves in his third straight win. "Their line got us going there in the second with their efforts, and everybody followed after…great leading by example."
As Rask keenly pointed out, it was not just Backes that provided some punch on against the 'Yotes. Backes has teamed up with Nash and rookie Danton Heinen to craft a more than formidable third line in the four games since his return against Tampa Bay last week.
The line was the Bruins' most consistent and dangerous combination against Arizona, with Nash contributing two assists and Heinen potting his fifth goal of the year late in the third to extend Boston's lead to 4-1. All three players finished as a plus-3.
"I think it worked out well for me as a coach that that line scored the [second] goal, because they were playing the game [that] was in front of them," said Cassidy. "If there was an opportunity to gain the zone with speed they did. If not, it was [get] behind them and go to work."

Cassidy appears to have struck a bit of gold with the triumvirate, with each bringing a little something different to the line, which was far from set in stone at the start of the year.
"You throw them all in there, you've got a little bit of physicality, guys that can win a faceoff…all three play the penalty kill, two of them are on the power play, so you've got an element of both," said Cassidy. "So that's the reasoning, and it's working, which is great because the third line was a question mark this year and at least in the short term we've solved that problem."
Both Nash and Heinen credited Backes with bringing leadership and structure each time they hit the ice.
"He wasn't even around for the first month and a half, which is kind of tough because he's such a good guy to have in the room and such a good guy for young guys to lean on and pick away at his knowledge for the game and the way he plays," said Nash, who has six points over his last six games. "He's like a [Patrice Bergeron] in that respect where he does a lot of really good things on the ice and never cuts corners."

Backes lived up to those leadership credentials after the win. Asked repeatedly about his two-goal performance, he instead chose to to discuss the success of the team over his own.
"It was a good team win, put a crooked number up on the board," said Backes. "A couple icing-on-the-cake ones there at the end - those are good for confidence and good to see the fruits of our labor from the first part of the game now pay off later in games. I think that's a good recipe for us."
As is having David Backes back in the lineup.