Bruins Glad To Have Campbell Back Around Team
BOSTON (CBS) - The Boston Bruins are back home, with Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final at the TD Garden on Monday night.
With their return home, they also get to see an injured teammate once again.
Gregory Campbell, who became a hockey hero in Boston when he remained on the ice during a penalty kill after breaking his leg in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Pittsburgh, was back around the team on Monday.
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Campbell underwent surgery on his leg last week, and wasn't able to join the team for the first two games of the series in Chicago. But with things shifting back to Boston for Games 3 and 4, there's been a "Soupy" reunion for the B's.
"It's nice to see him, there's no doubt," head coach Claude Julien said of Campbell on Monday. "We miss him, he's a good player for us, but just to be around our team, it's nice to have him back."
"He's part of our family," added Julien. "That's how we look at things in that dressing room. If he could have, he would have been in Chicago. It was too early after surgery. From here on in, he's good to go, going to be with us the whole way."
"With him not being able to be around us on the road, we definitely are going to enjoy his presence and just his comments on certain parts of the game," said Daniel Paille, Campbell's former linemate on Boston's fourth line. "I think we're all happy to see him again."
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"It's something that no player wants to be a part of when you're so close and you get injured, but we all understand that there's a territory that comes with it sometimes," said Paille. "He knows if he could skate he would be there and if there was that possibility, I'm sure we would all love to have him back in that dressing room, but for now we have to play and adjust without him right now."
Campbell's presence around the team brings back memories of Nathan Horton in 2011. Horton was injured in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Vancouver Canucks, suffering a concussion following a late hit by Aaron Rome. A few nights later, Horton was at the TD Garden for Game 4, waiving a Bruins towel prior to the game to fire up the crowd. Following the win, he was the one to presentRich Peverley with the lucky "Bruins Jacket" that was given out to the hero of each game during that championship run.
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Much like Horton two years ago, the Bruins want to win this one for Campbell.
"Every time that someone goes down you always want to play for that player," said Paille. "Soupy, we know he's done everything he did to help us get to where we're at and we always want to make sure that it wasn't for nothing. So, you want to leave it out there and make sure you give it everything."
This season, the Bruins are giving out an army jacket to the designated player of the game. If all goes well, Campbell might be the one to present it to one of his teammates on Monday night.
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