Campbell No Stranger to Playoff Flubs

A lot of the talk following last night's Game 2 in Detroit centered around Chicago's Brian Campbell and his turnover, which led to Mikael Samuelsson's game-winning goal, giving the Wings a 3-2 win in overtime and a 2-0 series lead. But it wasn't nearly the first time that Campbell has made a mistake that has cost his team a victory in a playoff overtime. This is actually the third time in this past three years that a misplay by Campbell has led to an overtime defeat for his team.

The first of Campbell's postseason miscues occurred during his time in Buffalo two years ago, and is probably the least egregious. In 2007, the Sabres faced the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals and would lose in five games. If you remember, the fifth game was the infamous "Preakness Game" in which NBC cut off coverage of the game before overtime in favor of pre-race Preakness coverage, forcing puckheads to scramble to find the game's conclusion on Versus.

That worked out pretty well for the Sabres and Campbell, as a smaller audience saw them get eliminated 3-2 in overtime thanks to a goal from Daniel Alfredsson. In the video below, it's hard to see what happened, so I'll let the Associated Press' recap of the game explain.

[The goal] came on what began as an innocent-looking play, accepting Dany Heatley's pass on the fly and breaking into the Sabres zone on a 1-on-3 rush. Using Buffalo defenseman Brian Campbell as a screen, Alfredsson had his shot tip off the defender's stick and sneak just inside the right post.

It's hard to lay a lot of blame on Campbell for the Sabres' fortunes on that play. He played Alfredsson tight on the play, as he had support from teammates on both sides and no other Senators in the area. You could easily chalk it up as an unlucky break, having the puck deflect off his stick and into the net. In fact, if anything, he helped the Sabres that year, scoring 48 points with a +28 rating during the regular season and scoring 14 points in 16 playoff games.

The next miscue came last season, when Campbell was a deadline day acquisition by the San Jose Sharks. This time, it was not an excusable offense.

During the conference semis, the Sharks faced off against the Dallas Stars. With the Sharks trailing 3-2 in the series, they headed to Dallas to try and even the series. Campbell had already been on the receiving end of some vitriol from Sharks fans for defensive lapses, but on the stat sheet, he had been producing. He notched 19 points in 20 regular season games with the Sharks and had seven points in 13 playoff games.

Game 6 in Dallas was a long one, starting on Sunday night and lasting into the early morning hours of Monday. It went three overtimes without either team breaking the 1-1 tie. In the fourth overtime, Campbell took a tripping penalty at 8:14. You can probably guess what happened next.



Brenden Morrow untied the game with a power play goal and the Sharks were knocked out in six games. This time, it's much easier to lay blame on Campbell. NHL referees are notorious for swallowing their whistles especially in the playoffs and especially during playoff overtime. In fact, during that game, they called only one other penalty after the second period.

And so ends your crash course in Brain Campbell Playoff Flubs. Tune in again next year -- or maybe later this week -- when we may have another lowlight to add to this list.