Complete and utter speculation by me:
I would speculate that the abdominal injury Backlund suffered last year is something that never fully heals (I think it was said last year, hence the mesh) and he is always going to be playing with some level of discomfort. Perhaps it is affecting him physically and mentally.
He just seems invisible right now. The past couple of seasons, you could never fault him on the effort. Granted he isn't overly gifted offensively, but his puck pursuit was as good as anybody on the team and his skating was becoming his best asset. This year he just seems to be going through the motions. He seems kind of lost, which is not normal for a healthy Backlund.
Just a guess.
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