Gregory Campbell‘s toughness could be defined in just one photo, but that doesn’t mean he’ll slap his John Hancock on it.
It’s been three months since the Bruins forward broke his ankle blocking a slapshot in the Eastern Conference finals against the Penguins. In those three months, the Legend of Soupy has rightfully grown as the gritty forward gained the eye of the hockey nation for the toughness and dedication he showed by staying on the ice and finishing his shift despite the brutal injury.
Now that he’s back in Boston and back in the public eye, skating at captains’ practices with his teammates, Campbell is perhaps getting a little more attention from the Black and Gold faithful than he’s used to. Not that he hates it, but he’d rather move on from the ordeal and be known as something more than some hero who broke his leg.
“I’d rather get attention by helping the team win and raising the Cup rather than getting hurt and breaking my leg,” he told friend of NESNÂ DJ Bean of WEEI.com on Thursday. “For me it was more of a discouraging moment that I had to overcome.”
Campbell wants to make sure the attention stays away from that plated ankle that he won’t even sign photos relating to the injury,
“I did a few, and then I started thinking about it. I don’t want to glorify it,” Campbell said. “It’s over. The play’s over, and I want to move on and focus on what’s really important — that’s playing. I don’t want to make something out of that play and make it into something bigger than it was. It was a blocked shot that happens countless times in a game and series and things like that, so I was just trying to do what I a had to do to help this team.”
Check out some photos of Soupy (that he won’t sign, sorry) below.
