from Lucas Aykroyd of IIHF.com,

Will Backstrom get one step closer to the Triple Gold Club?

You might not be surprised that Sidney Crosby leads all active NHLers in career assists per game (0.816). However, finding Nicklas Backstrom in second place (0.724) might take some people aback. The quietly efficient 29-year-old Swede, who has played 11 NHL seasons, has won two IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships (2006, 2017). Backstrom’s best chance to claim Olympic gold ended in frustration in Sochi in 2014 when he was suspended from the final against Canada due to an inadvertent doping violation after he took allergy medication. After Canada won 3-0, Backstrom was ultimately allowed to receive his silver medal.

If the Gavle native and his Washington teammates can rally from a 1-0 series deficit against the Golden Knights and win the Cup, he’ll just have to hope that the NHL returns for the Beijing Olympics and that he is still a productive player at age 34 in 2022. That’s the only way this playmaking centre will crack the IIHF’s Triple Gold Club. Same for Ovechkin.

Is Fleury poised to achieve a unique triple?

How many goalies have won three consecutive Stanley Cups – but with two different clubs? If you guessed “zero,” you’d be correct. Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury could change that.

The 33-year-old captured back-to-back Cups with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017, but was deemed expendable in the expansion draft due to the ascendancy of Matt Murray. Fleury, a two-time World Junior silver medalist and 2010 Olympic gold medalist, has responded with the best playoff numbers of his career so far (a 1.81 GAA and 94.2 save percentage in 16 games).

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