Soupy hopes you'll forget him

A friend emailed me a couple stories about Brian Campbell's return to San Jose with the Blackhawks Wednesday night and I was struck by his quote in this Chicago Sun-Times story from last week about meeting his former teams: ''Buffalo will be a little tougher. I'm glad we're not going there this year, and hopefully a year from now if we go there, they won't know who I am. That'd be fine by me.''

On the day he was traded to San Jose in February, you may remember Campbell's message to the fans here was "Please don't boo me." The Sabres meet the Hawks Jan. 14 in the United Center but Campbell and Patrick Kane don't come to town this year.

My guess is Campbell will get some boos here but nothing like Daniel Briere gets for signing with the hated Flyers. Campbell did get the Briere/Zdeno Chara treatment Wednesday in San Jose.

Stay with the blog for live updates to come on tonight's Sabres-Penguins game.

---Mike Harrington

Comments

[Buffalo Excuses]

Vandy,

Are you his agent?

"This kind of stuff makes me respect him more. Campbell wanted to be here and loves our town and our fans. He gets Buffalo. A lot of players don't."

He sure GOT Buffalo. No WAY he was going to get the kind of loot he got in Chi Town. But...Dude, he's gone. Left for more dough than most of us dream about. BTW, don't know about you, but most Excuses fans don't limit their dreaming at $20 Mil.

Just a thought. I would have bolted on this owner too. I just would have acted more like Ovechkin and held my hand to my ear to hear the boos. THAT I respect. Wimpers get you nothin.

[jan]

Campbell left Buffalo for big $$ and he left San Jose for the big $$ as well. Is he worth the big $$ Chicago gambled on him -- who knows.

[Cari]

Adam, I'd just like to say that Drew is really awesome to the fans. When I was up in Boston a few weeks ago for the game, he was the only player to stop outside of their hotel and sign autographs, and he takes pictures of Sabres fans in other cities, because it means something to him to have people into them all over the place.

And as a huge Campbell fan, I will never boo him, and I was upset that we lost him, but I can't blame him. Look at the market at that time. What the Sabres offered him is nowhere near what he could've fetched, and no one can blame him for getting what they were offering him. The Sabres should've manned-up and tacked another year on. He'd have signed.

[Vandy Adam]

Don,

The dude almost cried when he was traded and asked not to be booed. He cares about the fans and he became a Buffalo guy in his time here. Just because he rejected a contract offer, that in the current market WAS a joke, doesn't means he didn't want to be a Sabre. He elected to reject the Sabres' offer because he knew that he could make tens of millions of dollars more elsewhere and he was right. I understand the concept of a hometown discount, but tens of millions of dollars? To reject that and deny his family the kind of long-term stability that most of us can only dream of would just be foolish.

As far as Drew Stafford, I agree with your sentiments. I've heard many anecdotes that suggest he's a jerk to fans and he's a lousy player. I hope they ship him out of town, I don't like rooting for jerks, especially jerks that suck at what they do.

Adam

[Don H]

Yeah, he loved Buffalo and the fans, but his real love was money,--just like most professionals. All that talk about wonderful fans is bull. Stafford told how they really feel about fans.

[Kevin]

Elma, He was at Delilah's up the street.

[ElmaGolf]

Kevin - would the Bills Bar in Chicago be Lincoln Station? Whenever I visited, that was the one I went to.

If that's true, I'll give him a little slack. his following the Bills lends a little more credibility to his "I Loved Buffalo" talk.

Unfortunately, he said some pretty bone-headed things in the press before he left (negotiating his contract in public) and after he left, especially about the "lack of leadership" (apparently forgetting he was one of the oldest members of last year's team).

Besides, I still think anyone who terms a $20MM offer an "insult" should be booed on spec.

Time will soften the booing by the time he gets here, and if the Sabres are playing well at the time, he'll get off light.

[Derek]

I think he's a bag of doo doo. I hope they boo him all the time and I hope it torments him for the rest of his career.

[Vandy Adam]

This kind of stuff makes me respect him more. Campbell wanted to be here and loves our town and our fans. He gets Buffalo. A lot of players don't.

[Dave]

Eh, I say go easy on the guy. The thought of coming back to play against a bunch of guys he knows real well in place he was traded from obviously isn't all that appealing to him. Saying that he hopes he's forgotten isn't the best way to go out about expressing that, but oh well, no one is perfect.

[Kevin]

Soupy has been seen at the Bills bar here in Chicago rooting for Buffalo, so maybe he deserves a little slack. Good-natured boos would be OK, I think.

[Buffalo Excuses]

You know, watching his tears in that press conference I couldn't help but wonder what kind of stones this kid has. Having gotten that answer, I am amazed he made it to the NHL.

Maybe he thought it was The No Hair League when he applied.

[Reality Check]

By asking not to be booed, and then now asking to be forgotten, he's guaranteed himself the loudest boos ever.

[Buffalo Excuses]

Typical little boy. Unable to stand up for his actions, he hopes we forget them.

Where would these "men" be without hockey????

[Chad]

What a pansy Campbell is. Please don't boo me? I hope you forget me? Grow a set and man up. You bettered yourself by going to the highest bidder, now live with the results, both good and bad.