So close, yet so far away.
That would probably sum up how rookie defenseman Andrew Campbell is feeling about his dreams of playing in the NHL.
Now on his second call-up with the Kings this season, he has still yet to see game action.
“This is where you want to be,” Campbell told MayorsManor. “You dream of playing in the NHL, not playing in the American League. So this is the first step to hopefully playing in the NHL. It’s a process though and hopefully this is kind of the step in between, and I can work my way into a game.”
Saying all the right things is one thing, but inner feelings can be a little different for a 25-year old who was with the team a few weeks ago and then found himself back in Manchester before he knew it.
“It all happens so quickly,” he remarked. “You get your first call-up, and then two days later you’re going back down. So, it’s kind of like a roller coaster. You’re on the ultimate high and everyone’s congratulating you, talking to you, and before you know it you’re back on a plane. So it just shows you, you never know. Just go day-to-day and you can’t leave anything out there on a daily basis because it could be your last in my situation.”
During his first stint with the Kings a few weeks ago there was also a scheduling issue that made things a little worse for him. Campbell is from Caledonia, Ontario – not that far from Detroit. So, he was really hoping to play when the team visited Joe Louis Arena.
“I had a bunch of family who were holding onto their phones,” he admitted. “It’s a three-and-a-half hour drive. So my mom, my dad, my sister, cousins and some buddies from home – they were all waiting for the word to hop on the freeway and head on down. It would have been a pretty cool experience for a first game, but that didn’t happen and you move on.”
Not only did he miss out on that opportunity, he was sent back to Manchester when the Kings acquired Keaton Ellerby. But, understanding it’s part of the process, he went down and went right to work. Last Tuesday, his first game back with the Monarchs, Campbell scored a goal – something he hadn’t done in over a year.
Then, the next morning, he was told LA needed him again.
“It was obviously a good feeling,” he shared. “It happened so quick the whole thing was a blur. I wasn’t playing, stuck in the airports with the weather. Then, I’m back playing with Manchester on pink ice (last Tuesday’s game was a ‘Pink at the Rink’ game), then back up here in a week’s span. So, it was a pretty whirlwind week. It feels great right now though.”
Until coach Darryl Sutter tells him he’s playing, he knows the drill.
“I just practice hard and work on getting better,” Campbell said. “All that other stuff will take care of itself. I just have to control what I can control myself.”
One thing he wouldn’t commit to doing though was tweeting – at least not publicly.
Campbell has a private twitter account, meaning only people he’s ‘accepted’ can see what he posts.
It’s something good friend and fellow rookie Jake Muzzin doesn’t agree with.
“I’m out there to creep the world,” Muzzin said of his own twitter account. “Soup (Campbell’s nickname), he’s private. I don’t know though. Why have twitter if no one can look at your profile?”
That’s pretty rich coming from a guy who has yet to send his first tweet, right?
“No. I use it to see what’s going on in the world, that’s one step better than being private,” Muzzin jokingly tried to explain. “I look at the cool pictures and what the guys are doing on the team. I just flip on Twitter and it’s there man. I don’t have to go to a bunch of sports sites for soccer scores, baseball news – it’s all there on Twitter. And it’s easy, quick, boom, done. And when the trending happens you get to see what’s popular in the world. Like the new Harlem dance. I’m up to date!”
He also admitted to checking out MayorsManor, “If I get a good shout out in there, I always read those articles.”
But enough about Muzzin, back to Campbell.
While we appreciate that he too says he reads our posts on twitter – “I follow you and I read your stuff to stay up to date on the Kings.” – how about a nice public tweet from Campbell when he finally plays his first NHL game? That seems like a good time to make his official debut in the twitterverse.
“I can’t commit to anything,” he joked. “Maybe I’ll leave it protected and just send a message out thanking everyone and what not. We’ll see.”
Perhaps Dustin Penner can teach him how to tweet and Jim Fox can educate him about hashtags.
We’ll see.
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Haha ending it with Penner and Fox was perfect.