By the end of his Black-and-Gold run, Eriksson (30-33—63 in 82 games) had become one of the team’s best all-around forwards, good enough to land him a six-year, $36 million deal in Vancouver.

The lifelong Star suffered two concussions in 2013-14, unsurprising results of being walloped by John Scott and Brooks Orpik. Eriksson scored 10 goals and 27 assists in 61 games. Eriksson’s 0.61 points-per-game rate was well off his career high of 0.92, set in 2010-11 (27-46—73 in 79 games).

It remains to be seen whether a similar turnaround is in David Backes’s future.


Backes, the Bruins’ five-year, $30 million investment, is not playing well. Backes (11-11—22 in 47 games) is averaging 0.47 points per game. It is his lowest output since 2007-08, his first full NHL season, when he scored 31 points in 72 games (0.43).

On Saturday, Backes hurt his team more than he helped it. Auston Matthews stripped Backes in the neutral zone, leading to Toronto’s first goal.

“There are certainly lulls in my game at times,” said Backes, one of the few veterans who participated in a skills-heavy practice Sunday. “You try to make them as short and brief as possible. The saving grace a lot of the other times was the team was winning and I was finding ways to contribute. Screens in front, pucks are going by you, and you’ve been able to celebrate some goals. We just haven’t produced secondary scoring at all. One of the reasons I’m here today is to try to get better, put some work in. I take full responsibility for the first goal against.”

William Carrier knocked Backes out with a concussion for three games. Since returning, Backes, 32, has two goals and one assist in 14 games. Backes hasn’t put a puck in the net since Jan. 8 against Carolina. He is scoreless in 11 of the last 12 games.


Backes, once the net-front man on the No. 1 power-play unit, is now with the second group. Backes is averaging just 30 seconds of shorthanded ice time per game, the least he’s been trusted on the penalty kill since 2007-08 (0:27 per game). At five-on-five, according to www.corsica.hockey, Backes is averaging 1.45 points per 60 minutes of play, the third-worst clip of his career.

Backes, a natural center, played well as the No. 1 pivot between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak for the first three games when Patrice Bergeron was unavailable. When they signed Backes, the Bruins believed they could, based on matchups, slot him as the third-line center behind Bergeron and David Krejci. That lasted for just one game against Detroit on Jan. 18 when Backes centered Ryan Spooner and Austin Czarnik on the No. 3 line. By the next game against Chicago, coach Claude Julien moved Backes to right wing on the third line, trusting Riley Nash more in the middle.

At his best, Backes has helped to set the pace and emotional temperature. Of late, Backes has become a puck chaser.

As usual, Marchand, Bergeron, and Pastrnak have been doing the heavy lifting. Backes and Krejci, once projected to be a consistent second-line threat, continue to grind their gears at both ends of the ice.

They are an effective line when Krejci controls the puck, Backes smears bodies on the walls, and Frank Vatrano stretches out opponents with his straight-line speed. Instead, they have regularly chased the play. This does not play to the strengths of the heavy-legged Krejci and Backes.


“We’ve tried looking at video,” Backes said of why they’ve been chasers instead of pace-setters. “We’ve been consulting some of the coaching staff to give us some nuggets to hold onto to get better and create a lot more on the offensive side of things. We’ve got a few things we’re working on. But a lot of it just comes down to me being a better player, him being a better player, and with Frankie, finding ways to outplay the line we’re against every single night.”

Backes didn’t score in the Bruins’ 4-3 win over Pittsburgh on Jan. 26. But he was just as important as goal scorers Marchand (two), Bergeron, and Nash. Backes lit up Trevor Daley, Brian Dumoulin, and Phil Kessel with tooth-rattling body slams to light the emotional powder.

But in the last two losses to Toronto and Washington, Backes hasn’t been close enough to puck carriers to put his 221 pounds to work.

It would not have been surprising for Backes’s hard-knocks game to show cracks by Year 3 of his contract. That he’s struggling in the first season does not inspire confidence for the remainder of the run.

Backes knows he’s fighting his game. He could have opted for an off-ice Sunday workout like the other go-to players. But Backes joined Spooner, Vatrano, Matt Beleskey, Tim Schaller, Jimmy Hayes, Brandon Carlo, Colin Miller, John-Michael Liles, Joe Morrow, and Zane McIntyre for just less than an hour under the watch of skills coach Kim Brandvold and assistants Bruce Cassidy, Joe Sacco, and Jay Pandolfo.


“A little skill, a little creativity in there,” Backes said. “You’re feeling the puck. You’re handling it. Getting a little bit of that confidence back of being able to do something with it. Hopefully that contributes and translates into regular games.”

Backes cares. He would not have been the Blues’ captain if he didn’t. But right now, that’s not good enough.

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.