Gregory Campbell is 30 years old, he has played 9 NHL seasons and yet, he has never before scored 4 goals in 4 games. Until now.
In the first four games the Bruins have played in March, Campbell has been a force to be reckoned with, taking 10 shots, and of course scoring on 4 of them. For him and his line-mates, this 4 game explosion has been one of great power and one that has helped right the ship for the Bruins who struggled immediately out of the Olympic break.
Prior to the Bruin's March 1st game against Washington, Gregory Campbell had scored just 2 goals in the entire season and had not scored since January 14th or a total of 12 games. Altogether, this Bruins 4th line that has been one of the best 4th lines in hockey for at least 3 years now was once again being asked to deliver the 30-40 goals it had in seasons like 2012 and unfortunately, that simply was not happening. This line had lost its identity ever so slightly in the early parts of this season. In games like that infamous December 7th clash with Pittsburgh that saw Shawn Thornton KO Brooks Orpik and earn a 15 game suspension, they crossed that line separating rough play and dirty play and therefore committed penalties that gave their team no emotional boost. In other games, they tried to get too flashy, trying to out maneuver defenders rather than going straight through them as they had in years past.
While that style of play did pay off at times, namely on Thursday, January 28th when Shawn Thornton deaked 2 Florida defenders to backhand in one of the best goals of his career, overall it resulted in far more turnovers by the Merlot line and the fewest goals total by a Bruin fourth line through the first 58 games of a full season in the 4 years this group has been together. Just 14 goals.
When they lost Shawn Thornton to kick off the month of January, the team also lost some of that grit and ferocity that has done so well to supercharge the atmosphere at these games. During the suspension, their fight totals went down and no one on the 4th line except Danial Pallie scored a goal thus limiting the multi-faceted attack that the Bruins' 4th line give them. Even when he returned they simply were not the same.
But nevertheless, the 2 week Olympic break seemed to get something to click with this trio. None of them represented their countries in Sochi just as none of them were forced to deal with any scrutiny by the fans. While it can be assumed that they did log considerable hours in the gym during the games, they used this time to gain something that especially right out of the break would be something not many teams had. That is, a full line of capable scorers who instead of playing grueling hockey on a big international ice sheet for 2 weeks had taken a little off-season in the middle of the year.
More than any other time in the entire season, the odds were in favor of a big surge by them.
They seized the chance.
After a team wide hiccup in their first game back vs. Buffalo, the 4th line was the highlight of the latter half of their March 1st game against Washington notching a goal that sat much more easily with the kind of game they play. Taking the puck at the blue line, all 3 Bruins 4th liners raced towards the goal. With Danial Pallie skating a line that had him crossing the goal right at the top of the crease, Gregory Campbell following close behind him and Shawn Thornton skating behind and to the left of the two Bruins, a relaxed Washington defense allowed Thornton to toss the puck in the general direction of Campbell. With Pallie parked right in front of the net with his back towards Campbell, Campbell reached across the body of a defender in order to try to tag the puck and redirect it on goal. As he did so however he was tripped and sent crashing into the ice, Pallie and a bewildered Braden Holtby. The puck trickled in and Campbell sported an ear to ear grin as he untangled himself from the pile of bodies near the left goalpost.
That goal was the perfect Gregory Campbell goal and it provided this 4th line with a powerful boost that has carried them through this week as the best thing going for the B's. The very next day in a game against the New York Rangers, the Bruins overcame an early deficit to beat their Big Apple foe's 6-3. Campbell scored twice in that game marking the first time he has done so in the regular season since April 10th of last season. But that was not the best part of this game for "Soupy" as he is called by the team. With 10 minutes to go in the game and the Rangers nipping at the Bruins' heals Campbell took the puck on a shorthanded breakaway. This time instead of barreling into goalie Henrik Lunquvist however, he threw in a last second forehand/backhand move and tucked the puck in as he passed the right post. His next goal reverted back to the 4th line mold as he tipped a Pallie shot in a physical crossing pattern across the front of the net.
The goal was reviewed to see if the puck was kicked in but in the end it stood. Though he did take a day off from scoring Tuesday against the Panthers, Campebell completed the 4 goals in 4 games domination Thursday against Washington once again, this time tipping in yet another Danial Pallie shot.
Yet much like the rest of the Bruins, Campbell is humble when talking about his success.
“I’m just trying to get our line going here,” Campbell said after Thursday’s 3-0 shutout of the Capitals at TD Garden. “I feel like we’ve been playing a lot better. We’re working hard, we’re working smart and trying to read off of each other and get back to playing with one another. And you know, our lines are playing really well and have been contributing on a nightly basis, and everybody knows that to have four lines cruising into the playoffs is a good recipe.”
Claude Jullian however had to applaud the effort this line has given the team in the last games.
“Obviously, they have been much better,” Julien said after the 6-3 win over New York. “Because, number one, I think their line at one point was doing a lot of duplication. They’d end up with two guys as the first forechecker and they were a little bit all over the place and they didn’t get the results they wanted, and then spent a lot more time in our D zone than they should. They got themselves back in sync. Gregory has kind of turned the page there, and it’s important for him to have a good finish. So it was important to start from scratch, and that line sort of looked at some video and talked about how they needed to play, and they have been a really good line for us. They’ve scored goals - not by fluke - but more by the way they’ve worked together and how hard they’ve worked and how hard they’ve been working at putting pucks at the net."
All and all, adversity is something the 4th liners have come to know very well. At the same time such familiarity has also given them a whole list of ways to overcome that adversity. At the top of that list, score goals the way you are meant to score goals and in these 4 games, at least Gregory Campbell has done just that.
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