It probably doesn’t wash away the bitterness of being banned from the gold-medal game, but Nicklas Backstrom finally received his silver medal for representing Sweden in the 2014 Winter Olympics on Friday. That ended about a six-month wait following that controversy.
Nicklas @Backstrom19 officially got Olympic medal in his hometown. Photo by @Brynas. http://t.co/faCicoJsWH @WashCaps pic.twitter.com/1VABgh5ILH
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) August 29, 2014
Russian Machine Never Breaks passes along a translation of a Swedish interview in which the Washington Capitals center reveals that he feels some “small vindication” by receiving his medal. The fun part comes when he was asked about what he plans to do with the silver medal, though:
What will you do with the silver medal? NB: I’m sleeping with it tonight, that I’ll do. In retrospect, I feel like I appreciate it more now than what I would have done with it right after the final. Then you are so disappointed that it’s hard to be happy about the silver. Now I see it in a different way. It is still not too many people that have an Olympic silver.
(Almost sounds like Sidney Crosby sleeping with the Stanley Cup to some degree, although Backstrom’s rival ended up with gold from Sochi ...)
In case you’re wondering how the 26-year-old’s offseason training is going, the interview reveals that he’s taken up Crossfit, even if he experienced some workouts that left him tasting blood. Click here or here for more on that and is feelings on that failed test.