"In my opinion, 'O' has that special goalscoring mentality like no other.
He has a way of getting the puck in," writes Bäckström in a text about his teammate on nhl.com.
He calls the Russian a machine.
Bäckström and Ovetchkin have played 16 seasons together in Washington and often in the same chain.
The Swede had hip surgery last summer and is still not fully recovered.
So Gävlesonen has had to follow Ovetchkin's progress from the sidelines this season.
Passed Howe
On Christmas Eve, Ovechkin scored goals 801 and 802 as Washington defeated Winnipeg 4–1.
In doing so, he passed Gordie Howe as the NHL's second-best goal scorer of all time.
"Over the years, it has been more or less surreal to see what Alex Ovetchkin has done and I have been lucky enough to do it from the first floor," writes Bäckström.
In the 2006 NHL draft, it was Ovetchkin who had to read out Nicklas Bäckström's name in crisp English when Washington was to make its choice.
Ovetchkin then had the game for one season and was named the league's best rookie.
"We clicked immediately"
"It was pretty cool that the club had him read my name.
'Ovi' wasn't very good at English then, but neither was I.
So that was great.
We clicked immediately.”
It then took a year until "Bäckis" took the step over to North America.
"The first few years we hung out a lot and we were both single.
We lived near each other and drove each other to the games.
We had a blast.
There were a lot of fun times.”
"Bäckis" has played up to 278 of "Ovis'" 802 goals.
That places him in the top four in the NHL among players who have assisted the same goal scorer.