LOS ANGELES — Mattias Ekholm has been around for a long while now, and he has seen plenty of players get up off the mat. Like his old teammate, Viktor Arvidsson, who left Nashville under the shadow of injury and reclaimed his place as a major contributor for the Los Angeles Kings.
He has also seen the opposite in former defence partner Ryan Ellis, who might just be down for the count in Philadelphia, his injuries perhaps too much to overcome.
He’s seen players being passed over by the game who put their plight before their team, grumpy and moaning about the opportunity they aren’t receiving.
And then he’s watched Jack Campbell, whose life and death struggle to reclaim his place in the game has been waged in absolute silence — save for the noise he has made in support of Stuart Skinner and the rest of his Edmonton Oilers teammates.
“I’ve only been here (with Edmonton) for the last 20 games of the regular season,” reminded the big, bearded Swede, “and ever since Day 1 I’ve heard and I’ve seen how (Campbell) is not playing. That they’ve said he’s been struggling. But what I’ve seen is a guy that gets it, off the ice. He’s been probably the most supportive teammate we have.”
Will Campbell get the Game 5 start for Edmonton?
For the record, we would give him the net, though a coaching staff that will make that call wasn’t in a sharing mood Monday, as the Oilers flew home on the heels of one of this organization’s more memorable playoff victories — a 5-4 overtime triumph against the Kings.
The opening line on Campbell hasn’t wavered since the day Oilers GM Ken Holland signed him to that five-year contract last summer. Before anyone tells you what they think of him as a goalie, they tell you — to a man — about what a great human being he is.
Now, anyone would tell you privately that they’d rather have a you-know-what with a .925 save percentage than a great guy who can’t hold down the starter’s job. But sometimes life fires a knuckle puck at you, and how you react in tough times is the true tell of who you are as a person.
It’s funny, isn’t it?
Campbell was signed to be in the Oilers’ nets in a game like the one they eked out Sunday night in Los Angeles. And he was.
The journey he took to get there, however, was about as conventional as the paddle on Leon Draisaitl’s stick.
“It just goes to show how mentally tough he is,” said Connor McDavid, after a brilliant three-point night. “It hasn’t been easy for him, and he has stayed ready all along. That was a big moment for him, and for him to step in there and play as well as he did shows a lot about him and his character.”
Campbell was barely off the ice when he learned that he was going in, with his team down 3-0 and Edmonton’s season virtually on the line.
What went through his head when that news was delivered?
“I guess that’s where the preparation takes over,” Campbell said. “You know, the practices and habits that you’ve been working on. it was nice to get an opportunity, and I … definitely felt ready to go.”
Campbell played 50 minutes and stopped 27 of 28 shots — including a season-saver on Arvidsson with just over five minutes to play in a game led 4-3 by the Kings.
Players talk about staying ready, and working hard when the job they thought they’d have isn’t theirs anymore. But Campbell walked the walk on Sunday, the way he has inside the privacy of this team’s quarters all season.
“Knowing that, ‘OK, I’ve got to work on my game. But if I sit here and pout, I’ll be just draining the room. Then everybody else goes down.’ He has never done that. Not for a second,” said Ekholm. “That’s why I was so happy for him last night, to come out and really show that he can do it.
“He can still can do it, right? It’s been a tough year and that happens in everyone’s career. (But) he’s not a bad goalie because you have one bad year. He knows how to do it in this league, and he has done it for a long time. So I’m just happy for him for the human that he is.”
Who knows where this all goes?
The beauty of the playoffs is a game like Sunday’s in Round 1 can fill your sails for when a series is on the line two or three rounds down the road. Or, it can be over by the weekend.
Campbell doesn’t know when he’ll play or if he’ll play. He only knows that being a true pro means unconditional support towards everyone in his Oilers orbit — from Stuart Skinner to Devin Shore.
And when he gets in between the pipes, he’ll have the same from them.
“Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup, and I do have a lot of faith in myself and what I can do on the ice,” he said. “When I’m not in there, I know I can provide a spark that way too. (He’s) just trying to help whatever way I can.
“And, you know, everybody has been a great teammate. So it’s nice to just do what we can to help each other win.”
