As we mentioned in the Puck Headlines, the Chicago Blackhawks are going full-steam ahead with their campaign to get Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Brian Campbell into the NHL All-Star Game. The new phase focuses on mobilizing the constituents; but the Hawks have been doing a stellar job with viral propaganda for weeks.
The campaign "attack ads" for Kane and Toews were ridiculously clever; now, courtesy of Hockey Beat, is Campbell's "rebuttal" in what amounts to a third-party candidate for the Blackhawks:
"He's been getting himself to all-star games before those two could drive?" Campbell's first all-star appearance was 2007; Kane and Toews were born in 1988. Misleading!
Fun stuff, but more importantly this gives us a chance to check in on how Soupy is progressing for the Blackhawks this season -- and how he stacks up against the defensemen on his former team in San Jose.
Campbell is 4-16-20 in 28 games, a plus-2 and 10 power-play points. He's second on the team in average TOI (25:13) behind Duncan Keith (26:45), and leads the team in average power-play TOI (4:40).
His offensive numbers are all over the place, but the guy clearly needs to shoot more. Campbell also has a quirky home and away thing going on with his stats; does he play more conservatively on home ice?
H: 15 games, 2-5-7, plus-6
A: 13 games, 2-11-13, minus-4
Obviously, it's impossible not to bring up his former team, the San Jose Sharks, who improved to a mind-blowing 25-3-2 with last night's win over the Kings.
Dan Boyle, his de facto replacement after leaving for Chicago, is 10-16-26 and a plus-9 in 29 games, with 13 points on the power play and three game-winning goals.
With Boyle in the Norris race, the Sharks don't miss Campbell at all; in fact, Rob Blake (5-16-21) has Campbell's numbers this season with less ice time (21:45).
This isn't to say Campbell's a bust; if anything, Boyle's been a revelation, Blake has been swept up in the Sharks' great team play and Campbell could still make his 54 points from last season with a hot second half.
Still ... we'd love to see what Boyle's campaign commercial against Campbell would look like.
(Note: The All-Star note that was here will now be its own post.)
