The 4th line frame of mind: A look at Gregory Campbell's recent hot streak and how it has reguvinated the Bruins 4th line

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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Caps outlast Bruins: Another game of so-so defense dooms Boston

That man, yeah the one in the picture might as well be an evil terminator sent from the future to destroy the hopes of every other player and team in the NHL. Alex Ovechkin scoured 2 goals in this game and singlehandedly helped lead his team towards the dominant outcome that the Capitals enjoyed on the first day of March.

Playing in their second game since the Olympic break, the Bruins came in still feeling a bit of the shame of loosing to the lowly Sabers on Wednesday night. With Tuukka Rask back in net however, this seemed like a team who was ready to take out these Capitals and simply snag a win. But unfortunately for Boston, things did not necessarily follow that path. Though the Bruins jumped into a shot heavy offensive set, they did something early in the game that you just cannot get away with when you are playing against the Capitals. They committed penalties.

All season long, the combination of Niklas Backstrom and oh so potent Alexander Ovechkin have made it so that the Capitals have scored on close to 1 quarter of their power plays. Ridiculosly, they score these power play goals largely off of an unmatched mantra of shot taking. They average 7 shots per power play opportunity. The Bruins however were taking penalties right from the start of this game and it did not take them long to feel the effects of that Washington power play.

Carl Soderberg was whistled for holding the stick 4 minutes into the game and on the ensuing power play, though they did not score, the Capitals pelted Tuukka Rask with 5 shots and close to a constant presence in the offensive zone for that entire 2 minute advantage. As if that was not good enough, after Boston squandered a 2 minute 5 on 3 advantage later in the period, a Chris Kelly interference penalty put the Capials on the man advantage once again. This time, the league's best power play scorer was up to the task of putting the puck in the back of the net. With under 2 minutes left in the 1st period, Alex Ovechkin put the Capitals up 1-0.

"Well, I mean, if he gets those one-timers with a half-empty net, you're pretty much going to score. You have to recognize that he's out there and I don't think we did a very good job today with that," said Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask,  "He had that shot in the first period before he scored and then he gets that goal and the next one I was almost positive he was going short sided, but he kind of knuckled and he stalled and it went in. But if you keep giving him those one-timers he's going to find the back of the net."
4 minutes later, 2 minutes into the 2nd period, Ovechkin doubled that lead scoring another power play goal, this time off of a tripping penalty charged to Matt Bartowski. When Joel Ward absolutely humiliated the Bruins defense later in the period when he intercepted a D to D pass and roared his way up the middle on his way towards deaking out Tuukka Rask and sealing off a 3-0 lead for Washington.

The Bruins however seemed to get the memo after that goal and started to work to pry that lead away from the Caps. Within minutes of the Ward goal, Dougie Hamilton took a pass from Reilly Smith and slid down through the face off circle. Drawing two defenders too his side, Hamilton selflessly slid a pass of his own towards a completely unchecked Patrice Bergeron. He ripped the one timer past Bradan Holtby igniting, the TD Guarden, his teammates and the never quit spirit that has made Boston such a great team year in and year out.

"They got a little bit of momentum and the crowd got them into it, their fourth line got them into it and then we got to see a little bit of Boston and the way they have played all season long. And it's a tough team to defend against," Capitals defender Carl Alsner said when asked about the goal.

The Bruins fought hard for the remainder of that period, mashing bodies and pounding the Capitals with that annoying kind of skate through the opponent hitting that many of the Bruins forwards excel it. Before the 2nd period drew to a close, a goal that purely exemplified the Bruin's forth line play had turned this into a 3-2 game. That goal was scored when Shawn Thornton grabbed the puck along the left side boards. With Gregory Campbell streaking towards the net, Thornton slammed the puck towards the hash marks. Though the name of the person who actually hit the puck at that part of the ice is still up for debate, Cambell basically threw his body in it's direction, bouncing the puck of of either his or the defending Capital's stick and into the net. As Campbell, Pallie and Thornton all pealed themselves out of the carnage that piled up as Campbell knocked over everyone in his path, there was a kind of exuberant joy in the Garden. All of a sudden, this was a game. 

Before long however, it was all Capitals once again. Halfway through the 3rd period, Eric Fehur scored to put his team up 4-2 effectively sealing the game and sinking the ship on this game for Boston. 

"I think at this point in time the areas that I guess we haven't been as good at need to be addressed, because that's how we want to be as a team. We want to be held accountable to the areas that we didn't do as well tonight as I think we would like to," Bruins center Gregory Campbell said. "I think there were some positives in the game, but I mean it's another loss. We really don't like to lose two games in a row. At this point in time you're going to get the best from every team. That team is fighting for a playoff spot. It's just some details in the game that as a team we make a point to focus on."

A loss is a loss but this being the first time the Bruins have lost back to back games in over a month, this one hurts a little more. 

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When Bruins fans booed their team Tuesday night there was a story to be told

Very rarely do the fans of this Bruins team that has spent each of these last few years refusing to be knocked out of a game give up and express their displeasure with that team like they did Tuesday night. After the Bruins twice surrendered 1 goal leads in the 2nd period, they fell behind in the 3rd and so the boos rained down. But not because of the score, Bruins fans have learned in these past few years not to cast a second glance. 

When for the majority of the 2nd period of Tuesday's game, the Boston faithful booed and sarcastically cheered every mistake or minor success the team they were calling out their team and condemning a lack of desperation that has become a theme in these last few games. 

"I think it’s hard to win in this league when you’ve got to play from behind all the time," said Bruins Coach, Claude Julien. "I think that’s the biggest thing for me right now. We’re not great at playing catch-up hockey. We’re a team that’s pretty good playing with the lead, and we didn’t do a good enough job of that."

The team has gone into the 3rd period of games with the lead just twice in their 6 games this month and while they have posted an even 3-3 record they have spent far too much time playing from behind. By extension they have relied far too much on lucky bounces and costly mistakes on the part of their opponents rather than actually making plays and relying on the pure execution we were treated to early in the season. While such a mantra of play can carve a few wins out of games that you deserved to loose when you run into a team and a goaltender like they did Tuesday night you just are not going to win the game. Even on a night where they drilled 44 shots on Jonathan Bernier the Bruins struggled in the 2nd and 3rd periods and just could not make  those tic-tac-tow passes that scored those 2 goals in the 1st period. But even that was not what these Bruins fans were booing. What they were booing was the defense or lack of it for that matter.

In 8 games since Dennis Sidenberg tore his ACL, the Bruins have allowed 10 goals on the penalty kill and have slipped from 2nd to 12th in the league in the category now killing just 82% of penalties called against them. For this team whose penalty kill has been one of the best in the league these past two years it was uncharacteristic for even in a situation without Dennis Sidenberg in the lineup the Bruins to be suffering from such mediocrity on special teams. As they were hemmed in at the blue line, and forced into choppy passes, TD Garden showered those who they came to see in verbal embodiment of their displeasure. 

Finally, these Bruins got the message. They were the power team, they were the guys who should be bashing bodies and winning puck battles an though they had spent the majority of the night not doing that, when the realization that they were by then 2 goals down with under a period to go in the game kicked in their effort alone changed those boos back to the cheers that have such a more fitting place in Boston. We saw Kevin Miller bash into Morgan Rielly early in the 3rd period and then Johnny Boychuck wreck James Van Reimsdyk with such force that the Leaf winger's glove was catapulted into the stands. We saw Boston load on even more shots in the 3rd as well as finally locking down on defense and limiting the Leafs to 6 shots on goal in the final frame. 

The desperation was there, the execution and will to be that first guy to get to the puck was there and as assured, so were the goals. With just under 10 and a half minutes to go in the game, Gregory Campbell scored to bring the Bruins within 1. But in the end, the Bruins fell short. They simply ran out of time and so the score was settled as a 4-3 Toronto win. 

Now as we return to the subject of the booing, those who took part last night were not fair weather fans. They did not call for drastic change they did not hurl offensive language at the ears of the Bruins and yet, their boos sent a message. These are the Bruins, the Bruins who win the Stanley Cup and beat up on their way to it. But for 2 hours Tuesday night, they were not being those Bruins and so, there was discontempt in Boston.

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