"It meant the world," Backstrom said. "Obviously, I missed this, and with not knowing what my future was going to hold, just coming back and playing was great."
Backstrom, who had surgery to resurface his left hip on June 17, finished with one shot, three hits and one block in 14:03 of ice time. Wilson, who had surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee on May 24, had one shot and six hits in 14:10 of ice time.
"I thought it was great to have them back out there," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "That is a lot, jumping into that game. I thought they did fine. Every day from today as they move forward, they will get more confident and just feel better about it. I'm sure they are both glad to have it behind them and in the rearview mirror."
Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves for his fourth shutout of the season, and third in his past 10 starts, for the Capitals (23-14-6), who are 13-2-2 in their past 17 games and won for the first time this season when scoring fewer than three goals.
"Good teams can find a way in a lot of different ways, and tonight was one of them," Kuemper said. "As the season goes along, things get a little bit tighter, so it's nice to be able to get the ones like tonight."