By Danny Picard
CSNNE.comFollow @dannypicard
BOSTONBruins coach Claude Julien thought that putting Gregory Campbell on the power play in Game 5 would produce some offense on the man advantage.
The Bs went 0-for-4 in the experiment, and during Sundays practice at the TD Garden, Julien took Campbell off the power play.
Campbell is a grinder; he knows his role. So when he was asked to jump on the power play, he realized that he only had one job to do: screen Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo.
Its a nice opportunity for me, said Campbell after Sundays practice. I dont see much of that. But I think my role was really to park myself in front of the net and to cause that havoc, disturbancewhatever you want to call itin front of the net. Unfortunately, we didnt get set up in Game 5, and I think that was a challenge for us because we have very aggressive forwards.
In my career Ive played there before, added Campbell. Thats kind of my style. Im not a flashy player. Im a guy thats ready to go in front there. We have some big shots on the point, so if we can get those through, and the screen is there, its going to make it easier to get quality scoring chances.
Juliens two sets of power-play units at Sundays practice saw six forwards: David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron, Michael Ryder, Rich Peverley, and Mark Recchi.
Assuming that those will be the same six forwards on the power play in Game 6, it seems Campbells time on the man advantage are over.
Boston Bruins
But you cant say they didnt try.
We didn't get from Campbell what we hoped to because we never got the set that we wanted, Julien said on Sunday. And Greg is one of those guys that is willing to stand right in front of the net. He's one of those guys who is very good at tipping the puck, and that's one of the reasons we put him there.
If you look back at Michael Ryder's power play goal here, it was because of Gregory Campbell that he scored, added Julien. Luongo never saw it. He did such a great job. Our intention was to put him in that position last game, but, you know, when you don't get your set and the puck keeps going down the other end, you don't see the usefulness of his role.
So at one point we moved guys around hoping that somebody else could be the guy that could carry the puck in and have different looks. When one thing doesn't work, you go to the next. It's as simple as that."
Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard.