Al a very effective way to start is with a tight backward turn and about 3 crossovers and then backward stides
i.e. If the D is on the left side he would face the left side boards and skate a tight hook backward to the inside to create some torque and a few cross overs then the back stride with no crossovers.
Coachy
I was recently watching peewees do skill testing. One of the drills was 100' straight backward skating. After wathching several good skaters have slow starts because of poor cross overs, I asked a senior coach that I was standing by what he thought of cross over starts. He gave an answer very similar to Coachys.
Then he said "The reason you don't like crossovers is because you used to play basketball" 
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I have a question on how to start skating backwards, such as the D leaving the blue line. Should you do a cross over start or just take off using C cuts?
I believe that cross overs generally don't help you gain much more speed and can take you out of position. I see lots of coaches spending time working on cross over starts. Our hockey club has a Robby Glantz clinic and they teach cross over starts.
Am I way off base thinking that cross over starts aren that useful?