By Paul M. Banks
Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell was the leading vote-getter among Western Conference blue-liners for the NHL All-Star game in Montreal. This will be his third all-star appearance, in 2007 he was the leading vote getter among Eastern Conference defensemen or “defencemen” as they would say in his native Strathroy, Ontario.
In 07-08 Brian led the league in games played as one of only two players to appear in 83 games, or one more than a team’s full schedule, as based on his trade to San Jose (the other being Jeff Halpern. On Canada Day, Campbell signed an 8 year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks for roughly 7.1 million dollars a year. Fox Chicago reported that Campbell chose to sign with the Blackhawks despite allegedly receiving better contract offers from other organizations.
After the final game of the first half of the season, “Soupy” spoke openly about All-Star experiences and his thoughts on the state of his current team
On partaking in the NHL All-Star Game experience…
“It’s exciting I played in the last two, and they were in Atlanta and Dallas, and they’re not the biggest hockey hotbeds…so Montreal is really something that I’m looking forward to. It’s always fun to spend with your parents, and my brother and sister-in-law are coming down, so it’ll be fun to enjoy that spend some time with four teammates as well and I’m going to try and take home that car”
What it means to get his family involved in the All-Star fanfare…
“For me when your Mom and Dad sacrifice everything in the world for you to get myself, and my two brothers, and for them to go in and enjoy it and to see the smiles on their faces, it’s great. I know the NHL has a cooking class, my mom’s so excited about that. She loves those sort of things, so they can enjoy a weekend like that and obviously for the work they’ve done and obviously they are proud of myself for my accomplishments.”
On becoming a regular fan of the hockey, not just a player during the All-Star game…
“It’s fun to go with guys from your team and get autographs from other players, and something special to look back upon later in life and obviously we’re starting and we owe a lot of that to our fans who’ve been great all year long.”
Discussing his habit of collecting memorabilia from other All-Stars…
“I’ve gotten jerseys signed by everybody. I’d like to get the team stuff signed, I think it’ll be fun to play with Scott Niedermayer I need to get something from him signed I’ve looked up to him a lot, you try to collect things, I’ve got a stick already signed by Pat Kane and Jonathan, and myself, so you know that’s something that’ll be going up on the wall back home or here in Chicago.”
Giving a possible reason as to why the Hawks are now in this current funk…
“I think we’re working hard, were just not working hard and smart at the same time. I think we’re not in the right lanes sometimes or out of position or maybe we’re working too hard- you got to play it with your head too. You can’t just go out there and run around.”
Opining about the big 8 game road trip coming up and the psychology surrounding the prospect of the facing the next few weeks with little or no home games…
“You look at the schedule, you study it, you know the advantage, obviously it’s to your advantage to be playing at home, especially before you go on a long road trip and we have to be better and accountable for each other, we’re professionals here.”