Campbell's steady play helping Hawks' defense

The struggles of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook for stretches of this season have been well documented.

What has gone largely unnoticed is the consistent play of Brian Campbell on the blue line since he returned from missing the first 13 games with a sprained knee.

Campbell is a team-best plus-12 after the big game he turned in against Detroit on Friday, when he was plus-2 with a key assist and 4 blocked shots in almost 27 minutes off ice time in the 4-1 win.

Campbell played five more minutes than Keith and seven more than Seabrook.

The return of Campbell also has helped turn around the season for defense partner Niklas Hjalmarsson, who now is an even player after topping out at minus-9 earlier.

Hjalmarsson is plus-8 since Campbell got back in the lineup Nov. 1 at New York.

“I think that pair since they've been together is working well,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Nik got off to a real tough start, but I think he has been real fine. There's stability in that pair, and they complement each other in a lot of ways.”

When it comes to the Hawks' defense, the focus is always on Keith and Seabrook to the point that Campbell's value to the team often goes overlooked.

The Hawks aren't the same team without Campbell. That was evident late last season when he suffered a broken collarbone and didn't return until Game 4 against Nashville in the first round of the playoffs.

Trailing that series 2-1, the Hawks won three straight after Campbell's return to eliminate the Predators, with the rest being Stanley Cup history.

“Soupy's been good defensively this year and he's improved in that area, but Soupy's game is really not just measured by how he plays in his own end,” Quenneville said. “He really helps our puck movement, our puck-possession game and our offensive zone time. That's been there, and we appreciate that part of it.”

The thing that often blinds critics when it comes to Campbell's worth to the Hawks is his $7.1 million salary-cap hit.

This is Campbell's third season with the Hawks, and he admits it took him most of the first season to stop worrying about trying to measure up to the eight-year, $56.8 million contract he signed as a free agent.

“It's always fun to get accolades, but if our team is winning I think that always means most to myself,” Campbell said. “It's a tough situation and I don't know what it stems from. Maybe it's the contract, but it's out of my control. Maybe my first year it bothered me, but there are a lot of things out of your control.”

The longer the season goes, the more telling plus-minus statistics become. Campbell takes pride in his plus-12, accomplished in only 21 games.

“I didn't look at it much earlier in my career, but as I've gotten more and more along, I do take pride in it,” Campbell said. “It's something you always watch and look at.

“I had a really tough year one year in Buffalo and I had a tough first period in Toronto one time and I got the stat sheet thrown at me by the coach telling me, ‘Have you seen this lately?' That really makes you think.”

Next for Campbell is trying to make more plays in the offensive zone like the one he did in the second period Friday when he wove through the Detroit defense during a delayed penalty and found Tomas Kopecky for the critical third goal.

“I've got to do that more often,” Campbell said. “The coaches have been telling me to do that more, and they're right.”