Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Backes defends his play after boarding Alzner

St Louis Blues v Washington Capitals

David Backes

NHLI via Getty Images

David Backes had a short game on Sunday as he was ejected early in the second period for boarding Washington Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner. The blueliner was left bloodied, but he was able to continue playing and went on to log 19:34 minutes.

The NHL decided not to punish the St. Louis Blues captain further over the incident, but it wasn’t until today that Backes offered a public defense of his actions.

“Yeah, it’s nine years now and I’ve had one major penalty that was quickly rescinded right after that,” Backes told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Now this one, where I think it’s pretty benign — he hops back up and doesn’t miss a shift.

“Never looking to hurt anyone out there. The rules are the rules, I guess, and if there’s blood, (then the ejection was warranted). But the result is, the guys had one heck of a penalty kill for that five minutes, really got momentum off that and played a heck of a game ... They really picked me up.”

As far as his one major penalty note, for what it’s worth Backes has 24 major penalties and 17 misconducts in 616 career games, according to CBS Sports. Boarding Alzner was his second major penalty of the 2014-15 campaign, although it was his first game misconduct. That being said, he might not be counting his fights and those do account for most of his major penalties.

Here’s the hit in question:

Follow @RyanDadoun