CALGARY – The year was 2009 and the Toronto Maple Leafs had just made the blockbuster trade to acquire Phil Kessel. It didn’t take former teammate Matt Stajan very long to figure out that they had added something special.
Despite some lingering skepticism at the time, Stajan remembers the jolt Kessel sent through the lineup after returning from a shoulder surgery that delayed the start of his tenure in Toronto.
“We got off to a terrible start that season, but as soon as Phil got back in the lineup we went on a string of wins,” Stajan recalled Wednesday before his Calgary Flames hosted Kessel’s Leafs. “He’s a special player and I thought that from day one. I don’t know why it took everybody else so long to figure that out but he’s a threat whenever he’s out there.”
As a result, it’s no surprise that a big part of the Flames gameplan for Wednesday was trying to neutralize Kessel, who enters the night as the NHL’s second leading scorer and is riding a four-game goal streak.
He had a four-point performance in Edmonton on Tuesday and seems to be clicking well with linemates James van Riemsdyk and Nazem Kadri. Calgary figured the best way to stop that trio is to control the puck and force them to think about defence.
“You have to keep (Kessel) away from the offensive zone,” said Flames centre Joe Colborne, another former Leaf. “There is no real way to contain him. He’s a guy like (Alex) Ovechkin, he’s going to get his chances no matter what.”
With the Leafs playing on back-to-back nights, Jonathan Bernier is expected to start in goal following James Reimer’s 43-save shutout against the Oilers. No other lineup changes are expected.
For the Flames, it was the first game since beating Washington 5-2 at home on Saturday night. That improved the team’s record to a surprising 5-4-2 and left them well-rested heading into the matchup against Toronto.
There are four former Leaf players on the team’s roster – Stajan, Colborne and Lee Stempniak all sit side by side in the dressing room, just across from goalie Joey MacDonald – and they were eager for the puck to drop.
“It’s not even close to the same group as when I was there, but that’s the name of this business now,” said Stajan, who was traded as part of the package that landed Dion Phaneuf in January 2010. “But it’s still the Leafs, it’s still a special game for me because that’s where I was for so long.”
