hook_theme from D7 to Backdrop

Would greatly appreciate help on this matter.  I've done lots of searching and reviewed many contrib modules but could not find an example/solution/help.  I want a content type called "blog" to use a specific template (i.e. node--bs_blog.tpl.php) which is in the folder of the "blog" module I'm working on.  In old Drupal 7 this code worked:

function bs_blog_theme($existing, $type, $theme, $path) {
  return array(
    'node__bs_blog' => array (
      'variables' => '',
      'template' => 'node--bs_blog',
      'base hook' => 'node',
      'path' => backdrop_get_path('module', 'bs_blog') . '/templates',
    ),
  );
}

but in the the latest version of Backdrop it's giving me all kinds of warnings and a final ERROR (see below if you want to view the full output).  I think it's a simple fix... just can't find an example to get me started.

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Full error output

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• Warning: array_keys() expects parameter 1 to be array, string given in theme() (line 1068 of C:\wamp\www\backdrop_trash\core\includes\theme.inc).
• Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in theme() (line 1068 of C:\wamp\www\backdrop_trash\core\includes\theme.inc).
• Notice: Undefined index: #view_mode in template_preprocess_node() (line 197 of C:\wamp\www\backdrop_trash\core\modules\node\node.theme.inc).
• Notice: Undefined index: #node in template_preprocess_node() (line 200 of C:\wamp\www\backdrop_trash\core\modules\node\node.theme.inc).
• Notice: Trying to get property 'created' of non-object in template_preprocess_node() (line 203 of C:\wamp\www\backdrop_trash\core\modules\node\node.theme.inc).
• Warning: date_timezone_set() expects parameter 1 to be DateTime, bool given in format_date() (line 2449 of C:\wamp\www\backdrop_trash\core\includes\common.inc).
• Warning: date_format() expects parameter 1 to be DateTimeInterface, bool given in format_date() (line 2473 of C:\wamp\www\backdrop_trash\core\includes\common.inc).
• Error: Call to a member function uri() on null in entity_uri() (line 756 of C:\wamp\www\backdrop_trash\core\modules\entity\entity.module).