Could the Bruins have the second coming of the Merlot line?

It was a simple question to a member of the Bruins’ 2011 Stanley Cup team: How would you compare the team’s current fourth line of Tim Schaller, Sean Kuraly and Noel Acciari to the famous Merlot line?

The reaction from goalie Tuukka Rask was outstanding. It was a quick stare, almost like he was thinking, ‘C’mon, really?’ But he then answered it the best way possible. It was a way to honor the past and still give credit to the present at the same time.

“You don’t want to look back,” he said. “Every year is different. This year things have been clicking pretty good, so hopefully, we can keep that going.”

When the Bruins won their first Cup in 39 years, then-coach Claude Julien had the ability to roll four lines consistently and it was a major reason for the team’s success. Its bottom six was just as dangerous as the top six, but it was the legendary line of Shawn Thornton, Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille that made significant contributions.

The line name "Merlot" came from the color of their practice sweaters. Under coach Bruce Cassidy, the team only wears black and white during practice, hence the name "Pinot Noir" which in French means pine and black.



Now that the current Bruins' roster is healthy, Cassidy can rely on four lines and the bottom six have made distinct contributions to the team’s current string of success. It’s becoming reminiscent of '11. Without getting too carried away with this notion, because after all, the 2017-18 season is only to the midway point and the Bruins have a long way to go before making any type of comparisons.

It’s always fun to look back, so we tracked down Campbell, better known around these parts as “Soupy” to get a better sense of what it was like as a member of the Merlot line.

“We all had some similarities as players, but then we all had our own unique strengths,” Campbell told BostonSportsJournal.com. “For whatever reason, sometimes it’s hard to really define chemistry. It either works or it doesn’t work.”

Campbell arrived in Boston via trade with the Florida Panthers on June 22, 2010, and he remembers the first moment he felt that chemistry with Thornton on the ice. Prior to Campbell’s arrival, Thornton had gone almost a full calendar year (94 games, including playoffs) without a goal.

Only three games into the 2010-11 season, Thornton finally scored on Oct. 16 against the New Jersey Devils with assists by Campbell and Brad Marchand.

“I just remember how excited he was,” recalled Campbell.

Marchand was an original member of the Merlot line, but his skill set was different and he began to have success so Julien paired him with Patrice Bergeron, and Paille was inserted onto Campbell’s left side.

It worked right away.

“We all really accepted our role,” Campbell said. “I mostly played on third and fourth lines my entire career, so what allowed the three of us to excel was the fact that we were appreciated, not only by fans, but it was the guys inside that dressing room that really appreciated what we brought every night, whether it was seven minutes of hard work, or 12 minutes of hard work. We had to do things that not a lot of people wanted to do, but we were more than willing to do them because it helped the team.”

The fans fed off that relentless style of play, but Merlot’s teammates did too and the players could feel it.

“I did,” admitted Campbell. “It speaks to the character we had on that team. A lot of guys are consumed with their own play and their own stats, but that group of guys was all in and just wanted to win.”

It didn’t take long for Campbell to realize the team’s potential. During the summer of 2010, Thornton invited Campbell, Johnny Boychuk and Marco Sturm to the movie premiere of “The Town” at Fenway Park. Campbell witnessed first-hand how beloved his new teammates were in Boston, especially Thornton.

“It was like, ‘Wow. I’m in a sports city and this is awesome. This is all I ever wanted,’" Campbell said. "I had relative success (in Boston) because to me that’s what it is to play in the NHL – to be in a place where they appreciate you. (Fans) can be hard on you but that’s fine. They keep you accountable and expect nothing but winning and that’s totally fine for me, because that’s what we expect from ourselves to win.

“That drove me. The appreciation my teammates had for myself and our line, it was no different from the fans. Boston’s a blue-collared, hard-working city with great people. No one takes any BS and that’s why they got behind that team. The makeup of that team was the same as the city is and I’ll always consider Boston a second home and maybe it’ll be my primary home one day. I love going back. People and fans still come up to me and say ‘thank you’ and there’s no need to do that, but it makes me appreciate them as sports fans.”

The tone for that ’11 Cup-winning club was set during a team-building trip to Vermont during training camp. The players were separated and Campbell was in a group with Andrew Ference, who was a vocal leader on that team.

“He hit the nail on the head,” recalls Campbell. “He said to our group, ‘What makes a strong team, and a good team, is a team that really values what everybody brings to the table.’ That’s not often the case with a lot of teams. Typically, it’s the teams that aren’t doing so well when guys lose their roles and go off on their own and playing for themselves.

“Teams that win, your role is defined and it’s important. I felt that right from the start with that group of guys with how they appreciated our role. We weren’t playing as many minutes as Bergy, or Marchy, or Zee and we weren’t scoring goals every night, but it didn’t matter. After every win, everybody was happy with what they did to contribute. That was the kind of group that we had. It was a group of guys that really understood the game and understood how to win.”

There were many defining moments from the spring of ’11 that helped the Bruins win and the fourth line was part of many of those. There’s a reason Julien decided to start that line against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 7 of the quarterfinals at TD Garden. When Thornton leveled then-Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban in the corner, it set the tone and led to a 4-3 overtime victory.

Fast forward to 2013.

The Bruins reached the Eastern Conference finals when Campbell broke his leg while blocking a shot in Game 3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden. It’s a moment that will forever live in Boston’s sports lore. He remained on the ice for more than a minute as he helped kill off a penalty. He would miss the remainder of the Stanley Cup playoffs and it’s no coincidence the Bruins eventually lost the Chicago Blackhawks without the Merlot line intact.

Without Campbell, Chris Kelly centered Thornton and Paille, but in the Stanley Cup finals, Julien had Kaspars Daugavins with Rich Peverley and Thornton.

"We did have good balance, but it's a little different this year," said David Krejci. "Our fourth line can score too and maybe put the puck in the net more often. (In 2013) we had Soupy, who's just a good, hard-working guy. Thorty, he did his job really well and was the best at it and Paille had lots of speed. They had a good combination going, so they could play against any line, just like our fourth line now."

It's still too early to know exactly how the remainder of this season will play out, but it can be easy to make a comparison between those fourth-line groups.

Campbell, who currently works for the Columbus Blue Jackets as a development coach, returns to Boston as often as he can. In fact, he still has a 617 cell phone, which he said he’ll also keep. When he does visit Boston, the outpouring of fan support continues.

“It makes me want to move back to Boston every day,” Campbell said. “I can’t say enough about the city. I still consider it my second home.”

The current Bruins team has the ability to become a perennial playoff contender once again. It’s an exciting team to watch, especially when every line is contributing. Schaller, Kuraly and Acciari is the type of trio fans get behind. That line’s relentless style of play and contributions is similar to the Merlot line and that bodes well for the Bruins.

Marchand understands first-hand the appreciation of a productive fourth line that possesses grit, skill and desire.

“They bring a ton of energy every game,” he said. “They’re very consistent and they’ve been hot lately. It gives us a huge boost, knowing they can play against every single line and they’re great every night.”