Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm
Backlund might just be a guy who has run into some bad luck the past two seasons. People are far too quick to throw about the injury prone label. He was never an injured player over in Sweden and he wasn't in junior for the Kelowna Rocket either.
The played 90 games between the Heat and Flames (including playoffs) in 2009-2010 and then 73 games for the Flames in 2010-11. He missed half the year last season because of injuries and has missed time this year too. I'd easily chalk that up to a string of bad luck then being an injury prone guy.
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When Backlund plays in Sweeden, doesn't he play in some Swedish Beer league or something, versus the actual premier league? Likely has something to do with why he doesn't get hurt over there, he's not playing with the best and the biggest.
You can isolate each injury and give a reason for how it could happen to anyone, but the bottom line is the guy has had 4 major injuries now in less than two full seasons and its impacting his development and his impact on this club. He seemingly can't stay healthy at the NHL level. We can talk about the slash and blocked shot and say its bad luck, and maybe it is. But there also players in this league who throw their body's on the line way more than Backlund and rarely get hurt. He's also now dislocated his shoulder on a very innocent looking wrestle to the ground, and really hurt his knee on a knee on knee that was very tame by what we have seen before in this league. While true, he may just have gotten unlucky in all those situations and just been caught in the wrong spot, but as the injuries pile up relentlessly I'd say its very fair at this point to question his durability and physical capability to stay healthy in the best and toughest league in the world.