Brian Campbell praises leadership of former Blackhawks teammates

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Jonathan Toews had some time to get an early start on his golf game with Brian Campbell when the Blackhawks had more than a week off after sweeping the Minnesota Wild in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But Campbell said that the Chicago captain's head was somewhere else. Toews couldn't stop thinking about winning more Stanley Cups.

"All he said to me was 'I just want to keep winning championships,'" Campbell told CSN's David Kaplan on Monday's edition of SportsTalk Live. "When a guy comes up and says that, I'm just like sitting back — and Johnny is a lot younger than me — and I'm just like 'Man, this guy is one of the true, true best leaders out there.' So I just feel like every day he competes. In the summer time, he gets ready and he wants to win at every stake.

"So for me, I feel like he's the greatest captain I've ever played for. And me being an older guy, I look up to him and I look up to how he prepares himself and trains, and I want to be like him. There's a lot of kids that want to be like him, but I want to be just as good as him and see what it takes to get there."

[MORE: Stanley Cup Final feeling never gets old for Blackhawks]

The praise for his former teammates continued, with Campbell calling Duncan Keith the best defenseman in the NHL right now. Rightfully so, as Keith is arguably playing some of his best hockey. His postseason play has him listed with the third best odds to win the Conn Smythe — with Toews and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Tyler Johnson ahead of him, according to Sportsbook.com.

There's a reason Joel Quenneville plays Keith more than any other defenseman on the Blackhawks.

"He thrives with it," said Campbell of Keith's minutes. "But he's one of the best conditioned athletes in the league. His legs just don't get tired."

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The Blackhawks overcame their toughest challenge against a Ducks team that pushed them to seven games. But will the Lightning be a bigger challenge than Anaheim?

"I feel like Chicago is a better team than Anaheim," Campbell said. "It always gets harder, it doesn't matter. So, Tampa, I feel like they can come in and they're going to surprise them a bit with their speed. I feel like the odd man rushes, you'll see that a little bit more.

"So I think there's going to be a little bit of a surprise in the fact that Chicago is going to have to know that they're playing a little bit of a different team."

See what else Campbell had to say in the video above.

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