Sort of! I mean no, obviously Campbell is not the sole reason we lost games. But it became pretty clear by like November that Campbell was pretty cooked and wasn't going to be doing a lot of scoring. And then he followed that up by sporting one of the lowest Corsi For percentages in the entire league. Obviously CF doesn't tell the entire story, but the Bruins were in the top 10 for possession teams and the fact that Campbell (and Paille and whoever was on their line) were at one point the worst possession line in the LEAGUE is pretty alarming.
And okay, your fourth line sucks. That's too bad. Definitely a bad way to be. But when that line does suck and can't score and can't keep the puck out of their zone the response is not to play that line 2nd minutes but to limit their minutes. Not only were they getting big minutes they were getting huge minutes. 5 minutes left down by 1 - here's the fourth line. 5 minutes left up by 1 - look who's here. We just scored a huge goal and shifted the momentum - out trots Gregory ****ing Campbell.
And then, after he played 15 minutes against Washington (and I was at that **** show) he gets healthy scratched the next night. How does that happen? How does a player go from playing in a quarter of the game to not playing at all? Obviously Clode was aware he was sucking when he scratched him but did he not notice the night before when he was on the ice for 15 minutes?
Yes, there were instances in which they won in spite of Clode's choices or Campbell got a goal occasionally but for the most part, Campbell being on the ice correlated to the puck being in our zone and ending in a faceoff in our zone (or that ******* ****ing icing he pulled against Philly when he was on the ice in the last 5 minutes - I hope he kissed Marchand's shoes after that game).
And look, this is all coming from someone who likes Clode and is a proponent of keeping him. But what he did this season with Campbell and the fourth line was completely ridiculous. And it's fair to say it almost cost him his job.
