The star center and his entire Brynäs team had a tough premiere.
After returning home, expectations are sky-high for Brynäs, who won the series and made it to the SM final, losing to Luleå, as a newcomer last season.
Now the demands for gold are high.
It had been 6,756 days since Nicklas Bäckström played a competitive match in the Brynäs jersey in the SHL. At that time, it was called Elitserien and Brynäs won the sixth quarterfinal against HV71 in the SM playoffs on March 16, 2007.
The roof was close to being lifted off by the jubilation in a fully packed home arena (7,909 spectators) when 37-year-old Bäckström was presented as the last name in Brynäs' starting lineup.
Cheering
Almost as loud was the cheer when the former Washington star - 1,033 points, of which 762 were assists, in 1,105 games - won the first face-off.
He was also involved in the first goal - without getting any points.
Jakob Silfverberg found "Bäckis" with a pass in the power play, but was stopped in front of the goal, where instead the team captain Johan Larsson could lift in the home team's first goal, which meant equalizing to 1-1.
Larsson also gave Brynäs the lead with 2-1.
But then the fun ended.
Four goals in power play
But Växjö was sharp in numerical superiority and Brynäs often acted sleepily in their own zone. It became a total of four goals in numerical superiority for the Smålanders and the two times Brynäs equalized in the middle period, Växjö struck back with a leading goal.
When Félix Robert made it 6-4 - his second goal in power play - after just over half of the third period, the uphill battle became too steep for the home team.
I think we get beaten by a team that has better players for the day. We didn't play as fast as we usually do and we were sloppy with the puck in our own zone. We need to get better at that, says Bäckström to TV4.
Bäckström offered a few times with brilliant passes, but not unexpectedly, it was rusty after his almost two-year-long injury break.
Nice to be back, of course. But sad to lose. Just have to take new tags, summarizes the star after the match.
