Can Edmonton's Jack Campbell turn it around?

On today’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis discuss Jack Campbell’s cold streak and what he and the Edmonton Oilers need to do in order to regain his confidence in between the pipes.

Matt Larkin: Something that people don’t love to see if you’re an Edmonton Oilers fan, is every Jack Campbell’s start right now. I love the header we got “soups cold” because it really is. Seven goals last night, blitzed by the Carolina Hurricanes, Andrei Svechnikov terrorizing Jack Campbell, we know Campbell has already called his own play “pathetic”. He’s allowed four play goals six times this season and they just signed the long-term deal. So, what do you do Steven if you’re the Edmonton Oilers with Jack Campbell? Can this be salvaged; can this whole situation be salvaged? 

Steven Ellis: I wrote earlier yesterday that he’s a guy who really needs to turn things around. He’s had a really rough season and he just absolutely crapped his pants last night, it was a terrible game. We talked a little bit before the show about how this is a guy that you know he’s had some good moments in L.A. and when he was traded to Toronto you go “okay you know what, he’ll probably outperform there.” Then he goes to Toronto, Freddie Andersen goes out with an injury, and Campbell plays on the best team of his career, looks pretty solid and last year we were talking about him being a potential Vezina candidate. Then he looked like he was playing hurt, then of course he was hurt, and then it was just kind of over from there. Toronto didn’t want to spend the money to bring him back. They go out and get Matt Murray who gets hurt after his first game; ironically. Then you go see Campbell, this a fresh start, was this the goalie that the Oilers really needed? And no, clearly right now it’s not. He’s not playing well--Stuart Skinner is playing much better. But you got to give Campbell the starts. You’re paying him a lot of money to be your starter. And the way he’s playing, you need to get his confidence up. His confidence can be up and down. In Toronto, it seems like he would take some losses way too personally. He needs to get that out of his head right now and right now this is pretty concerning. This is not a small sample size--he’s played around 10 games. That’s not a small sample size at this point in juncture and he needs to be much better as right now he’s just not getting the job done. 

Matt Larkin: You’re right and when you look at the comments that he’s made after games, there’s a line there. At some point, it’s accountability, that’s something that actually endears you to your teammates but when it’s after every performance over and over, it starts to have a detrimental effect. It’s negative, it starts to bring the team down and I think we’re starting to see the reverse effect there with Jack Campbell. I think he has backup quarterback syndrome when you see a backup quarterback in the NFL come in mid-game, injury replacement and suddenly is a hero due to no pressure, and then suddenly next week the team has the book on him and he gets lit up, sacked a million times. I think that’s what we’re seeing with Jack Campbell, he’s the new Brian Elliott. Always a good number two, but as a number one the pressure is different, and it just doesn’t work. My theory is, play Skinner a lot and make Campbell think he’s the number two.  

You can watch the full episode here…