On Tuesday, May 26th, Nicklas Bäckström played golf at Congressional country club in Bethesda, Maryland. One of the other golfers he played with that day was Chris Cassaday. Cassady goes by @ccassaday on Instagram. He posted a picture of himself and Bäckström on the golf course. In conversation with another Instagram user, Cassaday said that Bäckström told him he would be having hip surgery this summer (see screencaps below.).

Of course it is possible that there were a misunderstanding in the communication between Cassaday and Bäckström. I posted this report so that it can be confirmed or debunked by people with better access to inside information from the Washington Capitals organization. Personally I would be thrilled to learn that there was a misunderstanding and that actually it is someone’s aunt getting a hip replacement.

In his exit interview, Bäckström was asked if he was banged up at all in the playoffs (at 2:54 in this video), a question that he answered with a no. I suppose that even if he is in fact having hip surgery, that is not technically a lie.

I thought this Mike Heika article about the Dallas Stars being more proactive about dealing with hip problems was really interesting. Heika describes how hard it is to know if a player should just rest and hope that the hip problems goes away, or if it is better to have preventive surgery.

Several Stars players have had surgery this past year, none more prominent than Art Ross trophy winner Jamie Benn. He is expected to need 4-5 months to recover from double hip surgery. Every recovery is different, of course, but that 4-6 months range is what google says is the standard recovery time.

Updated, May 28th, 5.30 CET

Read more about the surgery in Alex Prewitt’s blog post on the subject in the Washington Post.

On a personal note, this is always very much appreciated when you are a little Swedish Fish in a big North American pond.

Posts about Nicklas Bäckström on the blog

Nicklas Bäckström talks for the first time about his hip injury: “I’ve been in pain since November”

Nicklas Bäckström on what everyday life for an NHL player is really like (part II )

Nicklas Bäckström on what everyday life for an NHL player is really like (part I)

Nicklas Bäckström: ”Alex needs to do some of the dirty work”