Bruins can’t do anything with Kampfer except keep him around
“Everyone talks about [how] you’ve gotta have an edge to your game,” said the rookie. “I’m not gonna lie, I was a little mad that we had the lead at the beginning of the third and we gave it right back. So, I think … personally, I thought something needed to change. And, when I saw Hartnell coming down with his head down there, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to step up and put a hit on him, and try and get this crowd back in the game.”
Every night it seems Kampfer exhibits more and more of his untapped potential. With 39 games left in the NHL season and the Bruins in the midst of a dog fight for a playoff spot and positioning, it’d be a shame if any of those impressive passes, clutch goals or puck-carrier-flipping hits occurred in the Ocean State.
The Bruins need to keep Kampfer, make him a full-time Boston resident and deny the folks in Hershey a chance to see him strut his stuff among the best of the AHL.
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Greg-
Wheeler is at no point a beast. if his point production is coming from someone elses hard work then he can’t be trusted. He has slow feet, doesn’t play with any grit, he tends to be the guy who is always off-sides, weak on the puck, and has no scoring touch. list his pros and we will compare.
David: that’s unfortunately the reality of most sports fan anyway. Too much excitment when a rookie performs creates expectations & fans are disppointed the following years. That can easily happen to Kampfer as well. I have no doubt he is an NHLer & should have a long career barring injuries. But wait before to expect him to become a #1 defenseman with 60+ pts. Marchand should be considered the best rookie so far. Julien won’t be able to separate him from Bergeron the way they’re playing together: a combined 14pts in their 4 games together…
[...] continues to see important minutes, playing primarily with Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg. Matt Kalman at The Bruins Blog gives a nice profile of the former collegiate [...]
I get upset when we project our hopes for greatness onto a rookie who may just be average or even above average and then stone him when he isn’t what we dreamed.
Really I mean it’s too early to tell. He may very well turn into an all star player, but we haven’t seen enough. Also, it’s not only you but a large number of people dreaming that way. It’s nice, but leads to our alienation from good players who we expected too much from, and I like this kid and want to continue to see him here, as such, we shouldn’t start thinking that he will be an all star in a few years. I think we need to avoid that mentality for our younger players by and large (players like Seguin and Thorton are what I would consider exceptions to this rule). It’ll give us all a lot fewer headaches at night.
With that said, I would love to see him in an all star game and the HOF, especially in a Bruins uniform.
short answer is that you would be surprised by either, I take it.
Wheeler didn’t end up getting that goal switched over to him? that ain’t right.
Tru,
If/when he may be an allstar?
Lots of people get us excited when they’re rookies and then kind of level out, for example: Wheeler. A lot of us thought he would be a top line type of player by now putting up way more points than he does and many of us hate on him now because we don’t feel he is where he should be. You’re starting to set the bar pretty high for a guy with 17 games of experience. Given he makes our team better by adding a puck mover, a decent one, on the blueline who is also defensively responsible. BUT, he does not solve all our problems nor has he seen the sort of ice time that should tell us he is an all star type player. He may never see that. He is a good player and we see a lot of potential. But we are getting ahead of ourselves with statements like that. We should take him for what he is now, a decent puck moving d-man who fills a gaping hole in our blueline. Good? Yes. Allstar? no, not now and maybe not in a few years. Even Wideman in his best year wasn’t an all-star and he had significantly more offensive flair (not as much defense though).
My point is, he is having a good start and is hot right now, this is likely a good period for him and we shouldn’t base our expectation on that. We should expect him to distribute the puck and help us break out and be responsible in his defensive end. leave it at that. Don’t talk of All star status, no HOF careers. Just look at him for what he is.
After all, we already boo enough people in the Garden, no reason to add him to our list if he disappoints our lofty expectations.
@Anthony A.
Wheeler has been a beast the last three games. Marchand has totally gotten him out of his shell.
1 goal and 3 asists in his last three days. And he could have been credited with the second Bergie goal on Wednesday.
He is thumping people and thats what that line needs.
@ GR90 I hate Ference but he is a +18. Thats pretty good.
I take it back, I dont hate Ference, I hate his contract.
exactly agreed on all parts of that post, but would you be surprised in a few years if/when he may be an allstar or in a few decades if/when he may be a hall-of-famer? he surely is impressive.
I don’t think anyone is saying that Kampfer is an All-star let alone a hall of famer, but he definitely belongs in Boston. He seems to handle the pressure just fine. From his first hit in the first 5 seconds in his pro career to the hit on Hartnell to the game winner, it seems this kid doesn’t let his nerves get the best of him. Not to sound like an ass but I hope Ference’s injury is enough to keep him on the shelf for 2 weeks. This way the Bruins have a chance to see what D combinations work best and who should sit.
this article isn’t yet compressed into a continuation link.
“….past goaltender Brian Boucher [inside] the far post.”
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I do not like the style of lines that they go with, where one is a shooting line, another is a grinding line, another is a defensive line… it doesn’t seem to work. Bergeron deserves top billing and would make a great leader for this team that is trying to get it together enough for a legitimate push deep into the playoffs. they have the players, but the organization seems unnecessarily imperfect.they seemed destined to see a couple rounds in the playoffs. they need to get Savard off of the top line. he needs his ice time limited to just a little more than special teams play. I think they’d be strong with many lines other than the ones that’ve been tried as first lines lately and I’m still pushing spreading the grinders around like:
Recchi/Bergeron/Horton
Lucic/Savard/Thornton
Marchand/Krejci/Ryder
Seguin(Paille)/Campbell/Wheeler
Chara/Kampfer
Seidenberg/Boychuk
Ference(Stuart/Bartkowski)/McQuaid
Thomas(Rask)
the defensive lines would likely be mixed about with Stuart returning and Ference out, but I don’t think the back pairings are a really worrisome issue. that looks like quite a team, to me. with forward lines like those I’d worry about matchups and they could just have the most rested line ready to hop over the boards for the next shift. I’m not against bringing Caron back up, at all. his existence makes it easy to agree to a trade of Wheeler. who would y’all like to see the Bruins call up or acquire? who should go?
Kampfer has been awesome, to the point now that we will be able to live with a rookie mistake or two. He is too valuable. Marchand has been amazing. He adds some nice speed to the top 3 lines. Paille has to go. Use Caron on the 4th line with Campbell and Thornton. Wheeler should be the healthy scratch, he is too slow. And Ference out with make for a mean 3rd D pairing with Stuart and McQuaid!
Savard is overdue at this point, as is Horton. Both players have had significant improvements in the effort department, and they’ve looked like they’re foaming at the mouth because of how many missed chances they have had over the past few games. ONE of them will score soon (probably Horton) and the flood gates will open.
The kid had a great game last night. He just needs to keep working hard. Now that Ference is out we might have a perfect pairing in the Ds as soon as Stuart is back.
I would just like to add something else in here: he got the puck on the boards after Marchand pressure on Carle. We should point out the great night Marchand had (again) last night as well as Bergie. Savard is clearly coming back to his prime which makes me more and more optmistic about this team!
@MCK…you took the words out of my mouth. I love this kid Kampfer and he is super fun to watch. But 17 games does not a career make. Let’s wait a bit on the coronation.
“Everyone talks about [how] you’ve gotta have an edge to your game,” said the rookie. “I’m not gonna
lie, I was a little mad that we had the lead at the beginning of the third and we gave it right back. So, I think … personally, I thought something needed to change. And, when I saw Hartnell coming down with his head down there, I thought it was a perfect
opportunity to step up and put a hit on him, and try and get this crowd back in the game.”
Wow! That’s awesome from a rookie not known for that type of play. A good US kid to boot! Gotta love it.
I’m very happy to see you change your take on his place with this team MK. I know that you were always looking at it from a financial standpoint, but you can’t deny his play and the, so far positive, effect that it has had on this team. Since he has come up, you don’t see them getting pinned in their own end too much anymore. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence.
MCK: “…Hunwick…”
It’s funny, but at about game three of Kampfer’s big club time, I couldn’t help but think if the similarites between his and Hunwick’s game and rise to “fame” in the Black & Gold. Very, very similar paths, not to mention the Michigan connection.
So, with that being said, can we all please agree to not mentioning his name in the same sentence as Hunwick’s ever, ever again? ;-D
He looks good so far. Let’s not put him in the hall of fame just yet. He needs to keep working. That’s why Hunwick isn’t here anymore. He got complacent. Hopefully Kampfer understands that he has to play harder each night than the one before.
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This kid has got “it”. His confidence and puck-moving ability is the kind of contagious display this team needs to get back to (and maybe even outdo) ’08-09 form. So who’s the odd man out? Stuart is a leader and one of the toughest guys on the team… but even McQuaid is upstaging Stuart’s meager offensive numbers while holding down the fort in his own end. If Ference’s injury turns out to be long-term though, we don’t even have to contemplate this. Maybe Ference would be the odd man out anywho.
This team is showing what it can do when its individual pieces have self-confidence. Send Ryder down to Prov and let’s get our hands on one more scoring winger, and this team could go far.