November is the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer Month, and players like TJ Oshie are already starting to grow in their mustaches for "Movember."

But for Nicklas Backstrom, Hockey Fights Cancer Month means even more to him, as his mother is a breast cancer survivor.

Backstrom explained to Rob Carlin and Michael Jenkins in the most recent episode of the Capitals Talk Podcast that his parents waited almost a month to tell him about his mother's diagnosis.

"Obviously it was tough," Backstrom said. "I remember that too, we lost against was it maybe (New York) Rangers round two, and I just remember my mom and dad kept (from) telling me before the round was over so I could just focus on hockey instead of getting that into my head while we were playing in the playoffs."

After the Caps lost to the Rangers, Backstrom's focus became helping his mom get healthy again.

"They waited like, two-three weeks, maybe even a month to tell me until my season was done," Backstrom recalled. "I mean on top of the playoff loss, you get that, but honestly it was one priority, to get her healthy."

Since then, Hockey Fights Cancer Month has been something Backstrom identifies with even more now that he has a personal connection to the disease.

"I think the whole concept of NHL doing this (Hockey Fights Cancer Month) and us as players, we're all supporting it," Backstrom noted.

"I think it's too common now in the world we live in. It's shown up friends, families, yeah everyone knows someone that's going through it. So I mean I think it's such an important subject that we gotta talk about, and we gotta help out, we gotta do everything we can to make this a better place for us so we don't have to worry about cancer anymore. But obviously that's the way it is right now, we gotta do our best to stick together and work through it."

The Caps will celebrate Hockey Fights Cancer Month on November 23 when they take on the Vancouver Canucks. In addition to donning lavender jerseys, Backstrom will wear purple skate blades to honor his mother.

Listen to Backstrom's full interview on the Capitals Talk Podcast below.

MORE CAPITALS NEWS: