Backstrom Finally Scores!

It's not often a hockey team's top line center goes more than a week without putting a point on the board. 2 weeks would be cause for concern. Consider how fans of the Georgetown Millers felt after Nicklas Backstroke had gone 11 games before finally recording an assist at even strength against Victoria on day 23 of the season. It took very nearly a month into the season for the longest-serving member of the squad to open his scoring account. 

It's been a miserable start for Backstrom, who has a team-worst plus/minus of -6 and nearly as many PIMs (14) as shots on goal (16). The team is hopeful that moving him to the 2nd line (thereby installing Jeff Carter, who's red-hot with a 4-10-14 on the top line) and letting Andrew Cogliano do more of the defensive work on the line will bring Backstrom out of his funk. 

Cogliano has been a revelation playing a top 6 role, leading everyone with a +6 and adding 8 points in 12 games. Also deserving of recognition is Teuvo Teravainen, with a 5-5-10 in 12 games playing mostly on the 3rd line and 2nd PP unit - he sees an average of 11.6 minutes per game. Zach Smith has returned from injury and is providing offence and shut down defence on the 4th line. 

Paul Martin has gracefully accepted his demotion to 7th Defenseman with the recent additions of Andrei Markov and Mike Green. With the club's plan to rest Markov when back to back games are on the schedule, Martin should still see a fair number of starts this season. He's also first in line to replace anyone on the blue line who gets hurt. 

Peter Budaj is ready to return from IR and should receive a start later this week. After a stellar pre-season Budaj has struggled to a .857 save percentage in his 3 appearances. With starting netminder James Reimer limited to about 55 appearances this season, it's imperative that Budaj pulls his play up. 

With 2 home games this week the Millers will honour 2 musicians by playing their works throughout the contest: Monday night's game will feature the late Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who would have been 84 on September 23, and Wednesday's game will honour Meat Loaf, who turns 69.