Nicklas Backstrom was pumped after his digital twin scored a hat trick against the St. Louis Blues during an NBC Sports Washington simulation of the canceled regular-season game.

The Swedish center took to Twitter and tweeted “Please stay hot Nick when hockey returns!!!” John Carlson added hat trick emoji.

Backstrom also did an interview from his home where the questions were phrased as if he really played in the game.

Video

A big statement win tonight against the St. Louis Blues. What does it do for your confidence?

Nicklas Backstrom: “It feels great actually. Every time you beat the champs it’s a big thing. We’re happy with the two points.”

What allowed you to have so much success? You had quite the performance tonight.

Nicklas Backstrom: “Yeah, it feels great. I don’t do hat tricks that often. It’s always nice to seal it off with an empty-netter. You see what happens when you can’t hear Ovi scream all the time for the puck.”

What’s the mentality in these last few games before the playoffs?

Nicklas Backstrom: “I think we’ve been playing good lately and I think we need to finish off strong so we can go in with good confidence before the playoffs. That’s our mentality and it’s always been. Doesn’t matter if it’s video games or real life, we just gotta do it.” [Laughs]

Braden Holtby made 50 shots. What was his performance like watching him?

Nicklas Backstrom: “He’s always good for us so I think a performance like that against the Stanley Cup champs, we’ll take it. He had a lot of shots. Hopefully, a lot of them were from the outside.”

This is tremendous content. More of it please.