Chris Nichols

­Chris Nichols is Sportsnet.ca's fantasy hockey writer.

Washington centre Nicklas Backstrom was named to the Swedish Olympic team over the weekend and he couldn't be happier right now, especially coming at a productive time of the season where he's collected 22 points in his last 14 starts.

"The Olympics has been a dream since I was a kid," Backstrom told The Washington Post. "It was fun to hear the news. I'm excited right now."

We're only into Backstrom's third NHL campaign and he's already established himself as one of the best passers in the league, but his overall game has been rounding into form for awhile now. Offensively, we've Alex Ovechkin's pivot fire home 11 goals in his past 13 outings.

Coach Bruce Boudreau attributes Backstrom's uptick to being less "cute" in scoring areas.

"He's shooting the puck," Boudreau noted to The Post. "That's a [sign] of maturation. He's not trying to be cute. He's getting older. When he's close to the net, he's starting to like to score goals. It's a good thing to want to dish, but he's enjoying scoring goals and he's pretty good at it."

Backstrom currently sits in sixth place in the Art Ross race, trailing Ovechkin by only four points and league leader Joe Thornton by nine. Enough of this blog space has been dedicated to waxing poetic on Backstrom's enormous potential in the past few years, but take the word of the man who has coached him throughout most of his young pro career.

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

"You're just seeing the tip of the iceberg," Boudreau said. "He does everything for us. He now kills penalties, is on every power play and [plays in] every important situation."

SCHNEIDER WAIVED
Mathieu Schneider has been placed on waivers by the Canucks after the trade route apparently didn't work out. Whether he's claimed now or not, it'll be interesting to see if a team in need of some power play help eventually takes a shot at him for the second half. Stay tuned.

JOHNSON SCRATCHED
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a note from this morning's skate that prized defenceman Erik Johnson, who is -3 with no points in his past eight games, will be benched for tonight's game. Darryl Sydor will take his place in the line-up.

Johnson had seven points in 12 October GP and then 11 in 13 last month, but has only three in December thanks to this latest offensive slump. Players go through these stretches though, so it shouldn't be a huge concern for single-season owners at this point. The points will come soon enough and getting some perspective from the press box isn't necessarily a bad thing.

QUOTABLE
"It's been a tough road so far,'' Milan Lucic told to The Boston Globe of his ankle injury. "Just trying to stay positive and make sure I'm ready to go in the second half of the season to do anything I can to help contribute. A lot of people keep talking about the Winter Classic, the Winter Classic. The only answer I really have is that we can only take it day by day. I'm not going to force myself to get back and put myself in a position where I can get injured again and sit out for another four to six weeks. I think the best thing right now is to be smart and be ready for the second half. Most of all, be ready if we do get in the playoffs for the final stretch of the season.''

LEINO STRUGGLES
A number of things haven't gone right for the Detroit Red Wings offensively this season. One of a myriad of factors mired in the injury mess that has enveloped their top forwards includes subpar play from rookie Ville Leino, who showed flashes of brilliance in a brief taste of action late last season. He had nine points in 13 GP in limited action.

This season? Not only has the production not been there (six points in 35 GP with a -9 rating a number of healthy scratches to his name), but he admits his confidence has definitely been lacking as well.

"Sometimes when you don't have self-confidence you're not doing that good in battles and all other aspects of hockey,'' Leino told Michigan Live. "It's not always easy to just win battles. I'm not a player who's a fourth-liner and just works hard every day and only can concentrate on that. It's not my best thing. I'm more like (a scorer).

"Players are different. Helmer can always go hard and try to win all the battles and play like that. For me, it's not always that easy. When you're not scoring you don't feel very confident.''

In single-season formats there's really no reason to own Leino right now, but with a healthy Valtteri Filppula back in the line-up there's more reason to be optimistic about a better second half. As we've discussed ad nausea, Filppula gives the team a solid second centre option for when coach Mike Babcock wants to roll out Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk on the same line. When those two are split up and anchoring their own units, Filppula's presence on the third line provides the depth and stability to allow three lines worth of wingers to have a chance to succeed offensively.

Which should help Leino. Theoretically.

QUOTABLE
"To be near the bottom of the league in both power play (fourth-worst) and penalty kill (second-worst) and still be good in the standings is pretty unusual,'' captain Jason Arnott told The Nashville Tennessean. "I don't think we can rely on that for the rest of the year. We really have to try to boost up both those units.''

PROSPAL OUT
Already suffering from a lack of depth in terms of scoring lines, the New York Post reports that the Rangers suffered a serious blow yesterday. Vaclav Prospal will be out 10 days to three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery.

With the compressed Olympic schedule, every injury has a more significant impact on his team because he's likely to be missing a few more games than normal in any given time span. It seems like Prospal will miss at least five or six games in the best-case scenario, which means someone will have to step up on the first line with Marian Gaborik and Brandon Dubinsky. The Post speculates that Christopher Higgins could be the first candidate in the L1 LW slot.

TAVARES SLUMPING
John Tavares, who was the first overall pick in last summer's draft, busted out of the gates in October with five points in his first three games and 27 in his first 32 starts. In his past eight games the production has tailed off with only one goal and no helpers.

His GM isn't worried and his single-season poolies shouldn't sweat it either.

"He's 19 years old," Snow told The New York Post of Tavares headed into tonight's game vs. CBJ. "Any time a young guy is going to come out of juniors or college hockey into this league, it's not going to be a seamless transition."

Only Kyle Okposo (20:20), in his second full season with the Isles, averages more ice time up front that Tavares (18:38). Tavares leads the team in goals (16), points (28), power play points (15) and is third in assists (12).

"We're satisfied with where he is," Snow said. "He's going through a tough stretch, just like any young player does. He'll be fine."