In just his first year with the club, the Bruins forward has become only the 13th Boston player to reach double figures in both goals and fighting majors in the same season.
Campbell reached the goal milestone first with his 10th goal of the season on March 10 against Buffalo. His 10th fight came two weeks later with a bout against Montreal defenseman Paul Mara last Thursday. That scrap made Campbell just the second Bruin since Steve Leach in 1992 to accomplish the feat, joining Milan Lucic, who had 17 goals and 10 fighting majors in 2008-09.
"I didn't realize that," Campbell said after practice Monday. "It's not something I focus on, but it's an interesting stat. It's not something I set out at the beginning of the year to accomplish.
"Sometimes we're going to need scoring," he added. "Sometimes we're going to need a fight to get us going. I just want to contribute wherever I can in an area that's going to help the team."
The Bruins have been pleasantly surprised that Campbell has contributed as much as he has in both areas. Prior to coming to Boston this summer in a trade with Florida that also brought Nathan Horton to the Bruins, Campbell had managed more than six goals just once in five seasons with the Panthers and never had more than seven fights.
With two goals in that same game against Montreal, Campbell is now one goal shy of the career-high 13 he scored in 2008-09. And he's already lapped his previous high in fights, picking up his 11th fighting major Saturday against Rangers agitator Sean Avery.
"I want to be a complete player, contribute in all facets of the game," Campbell said. "With this team, there's a lot of depth. There's a lot of guys that can score. There's a lot of guys that can play physical. There's a lot of guys that can fight. I think part of a successful team is having different guys that can contribute in those different areas.
"Last year I didn't have a very good year statistically," added Campbell, who had just 2-15-17 totals in 2009-10. "Sometimes you have those years, but I think it was important for me to bounce back and prove that I am capable of contributing in areas like scoring goals. But for me it's not just about scoring goals. I have to be good everywhere else and then hopefully the goals will come."
They have this year. And they've also come for his linemate Shawn Thornton. The Bruins' resident tough guy leads the team in fighting majors as usual with 14, but he's also set a career-high in goals. With nine tallies, he's just one away from giving the Bruins their first set of teammates with double-digit goals and fights in the same season since Cam Neely (36 goals, 12 fights) and Nevin Markwart (10 goals, 22 fights) accomplished the feat together in 1986-87.
"That will be pretty cool," Thornton said. "Hopefully I can squeeze one by them then. But I've found that when I start really worrying about it, that's when it never happens, so I'm just going to go out and play and hopefully it happens. I try my hardest, the rest of it is out of my control"
Thornton did admit that reaching 10 goals would be a special milestone, as his role as an enforcer has usually taken precedence over trying to show off any offensive skills.
"It'd be huge," Thornton said. "I've talked about it. I've told whoever would listen I thought I was capable of it, so it would be nice. It would be pretty rewarding for all the work I've put in over the years."
Campbell is certainly pulling for his linemate to join the club.
"It would be nice to get him there," Campbell said. "It's nice because we've contributed in games that are meaningful games and big games. I'm sure it's not expected for us to score a lot, but we work hard at our game.
"The guys that score goals get the attention, but we just try to quietly go about our business and try to help the team in those areas," Campbell added. "If the team needs energy, he's willing to fight and he's shown that he's a lot more than that. He's capable of scoring, so it will be nice if he can score that [10th] goal."
It would be a rarity in today's game too. The age of specialization has left the bulk of the fighting to the one or two designated tough guys employed by most teams, and even the most physical of goal-scorers are usually called upon to drop the gloves only a handful of times. Only six players in the league have reached double figures in both categories this season, with San Jose's Ryan Clowe (24 goals, 12 fights), the Rangers' Brandon Prust (12 goals, 16 fights), New Jersey's David Clarkson (12 goals, 12 fights), Dallas' Steve Ott (11 goals, 10 fights) and Calgary's Tim Jackman (10 goals, 12 fights) joining Campbell.
Getting both Thornton and Campbell in that exclusive club would be quite a feat for the Bruins.
Such numbers used to be far more common in Boston. Prior to Neely and Markwart each accomplishing the double in 1986-87, it was done 20 times in the previous 12 seasons. Eight of those seasons came from the king of this unique double-double, the ultimate Bruin himself, Terry O'Reilly.
The Bruins aren't likely to see that kind of combined production again, but this year's fourth line has at least brought back a little bit of that old school balance of talent and toughness and proven that the two facets of the game don't have to be mutually exclusive.
