Sharks Gameday: The Irrational Hatred of Brian Campbell

Whether we like to believe or not, a big part of hockey is having hatred for certain players or teams. It's a big part of sports in general--we feed on players making dirty plays or doing stupid things because hell, if we liked everything and everyone, sports would be boring. Sometimes the hate that we feel is because of our own players being shitty, which is something I can say I feel currently, since there's a few players on the Sharks I would like to throw in a dumpster.

Sometimes bad players are signed by your favorite team. That sucks. I'm so sorry. Sometimes good players don't re-sign with your favorite team. That sucks. I'm so sorry.

I'm talking about this because the Sharks are playing the Panthers tonight, and as you know, this means that Sharks fans have to deal with watching Brian Campbell play. Just to recap, Brian Campbell was traded to the Sharks at the deadline in 2008 from Buffalo for Steve Bernier (lol) and a first (who ended up being Tyler Ennis). He played 20 regular season games and 13 playoff games with the Sharks. He got 26 points in 33 games with San Jose, which is pretty great for a defenseman, in fact, he was seemingly the number one defenseman at that time.

He opt'd out of signing with the Sharks during the offseason and signed with Chicago. Campbell's contract with Chicago was 56.8 mil for 8 years. At that current moment, it sucked. The Sharks traded away (what seemed like) a lot to acquire a player who only ended up playing for the team for a couple months. Also, Campbell won a cup with Chicago a couple years later because hey, why not?

This makes Sharks fans ANGRY. So angry that up until the last time the San Jose played Florida last season, I was seeing tweets from people saying how much they hated Brian Campbell and not to mention that he still gets booed when he makes his annual appearance at the tank. It's been over six years. I understand having irrational hatred for players but damn, he's not your ex boyfriend, guys.

Sure, Campbell can be seen as greedy for going after a big paycheck, but remember that it's not like he was a franchise player. He was only on the team for a couple months. He was a rental, this shit happens all the time, who cares. Maybe Campbell would have been a superstar if he stayed in San Jose, maybe he would have turned out to be a turd like literally 80% of the players acquired by San Jose. I don't know. I don't care. It's been six years.

There was so much good that came out of Brian Campbell not re-signing with San Jose, it's stupid. The biggest and most obvious is that Campbell not re-signing caused Doug Wilson to trade for Dan Boyle. In retrospect, the Sharks gave up A LOT for Boyle, who was about to be put on waivers and acquired by the dead Thrashers before he waived his NTC to go to San Jose. The players that were traded for him were Matt Carle (lol), Ty Wishart (I'm sorry, who?), a 2009 first rounder who ended up being Carter Ashton (I wonder what he's up to), and a 2010 fourth rounder named Jimmy Mullin (who hasn't played in one NHL game).

Although Boyle is not on the team anymore, I love him and I loved his time with the Sharks. He had a smaller cap hit than Campbell, produced more (269 [nice] points vs. 234 points), he's older and more distinguished, he's better looking and he is cooler than Brian Campbell will ever be.

So maybe if you hate Campbell, instead of throwing beer cans at your TV tonight, throw roses, because his unwillingness to sign with San Jose, gave us this beautiful man:

Miss you everyday, Danny.

Gameday!

San Jose Sharks @ Florida Panthers

4:30pm PST

Big Butts & Turds Center

CSN-CA

Prediction:

The Sharks played a pretty dumb game on Sunday against a slumping team. Very Sharks. Florida is very not good. Unlike other not good opponents like the Sabres, the Sharks are actually capable of being the Panthers. Sharks win, 3-1. Goals from Brent Burns, Tommy Wingels, and Joe Thornton. The lone Panthers goal is from Brian Campbell.

Setting the Tone:

Further Seems Forever > Dashboard Confessional

Tweet of the Day:

Some previews of tomorrow's @SanJoseSharks vs. @FlaPanthers game day doodle. #SJSvsFLA @SunshineSkateFL pic.twitter.com/9Z9V2wmu68

— Captain H. Babble (@HockeyBabbler) November 11, 2014

Awful Hockey Tattoo of the Day:

This isn't really the worst, it's just the only one I could find.