Bruins Campbell: As Chara Goes, The Team Goes
BOSTON (CBS) -Bruins center Gregory Campbell joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Gresh and Zolak Friday afternoon, and continued to defend Bruins captain Zdeno Chara.
"As Z goes, the team goes," Campbell said of his captain. "He's an extremely important part to our team, not only on the ice but off the ice. He's a good person and cares about every one of us on the team. You talk about being a good leader and captain and the most important thing is leading by example, and he does that to perfection."
Listen: Gregory Campbell on Gresh and Zolak
Chara has carried the weight of the world on his shoulders the last two weeks, as he dealt with the fallout from his March 8th hit on the Canadiens Max Pacioretty. Pacioretty sustained a severe concussion and fractured vertebrae from Chara's check into the turnbuckle, and is seen as public enemy number-1 in Montreal.
"I know Z's been troubled a lot by whats gone on and the injury to Pacioretty," Campbell added. "It's not something he wants to see or something that he wanted to happen. He plays the game hard and so do we all. That's what we sign up for."
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Campbell also defended teammate Mark Recchi, who said the Canadiens "embellished" the Pacioretty injury to try and get Chara suspended. After the Bruins 7-0 win over the Habs Thursday night, Recchi said he made the comments to take the pressure off Chara.
"There was no talk of something like that, Rex took it upon himself to be a leader and to do that for Z," Campbell said of Recchi's comments. "It's certainly understandable why he did that. It wasn't talked much about in our dressing room. It was more about playing a good game last night, which we did."
"His intentions are always good and I'm sure Z appreciated what he did."
Recchi was not the only Bruin to bring up Pacioretty's injury. Milan Lucic also made comments about Pacioretty attending a movie in the days following the hit. Although Recchi and Lucic made their comments public, Campbell said there was no discussion about them in the Bruins locker room.
"We don't sit around and have discussions about that, but obviously everybody was concerned," he said. "We're all playing the same game, it's a fast, tough game and those things happen. I can tell you nobody on our team wants to see anyone get hurt, on our own team or any other team."
"You can never judge or criticize someone that's been injured because it was a serious play. He was hurt ion the play, its not a laughing matter or something to be taken lightly. We deal with our injuries and situations different from other teams, but whenever someones injured nobody jokes about it or takes it lightly."
