Although he didn’t win the Conn Smythe last spring, Phil Kessel became the Stanley Cup hero we all needed.
Has the general opinion of any other NHL star changed as much over the past few years as Kessel?
Let’s review.
There’s that famous moment from the 2011 All-Star Game team selection draft, when Kessel was the last player available. As he sat there uncomfortably looking up at the rows of NHL stars picked before him, Alex Ovechkin was laughing back down at him with his phone up to take pictures and videos.
The under-appreciated Leafs sniper had seemingly hit a low and, in a way, became a bit of a laughingstock in that moment. Maybe it was more a commentary on the state of the Leafs than Kessel himself, but however much joking there was at Kessel’s expense was soon washed away by a degree of pity.
Four times Kessel hit the 30-goal mark for the Leafs, but he never got the credit he deserved. In 2015, he went through a public phase of being labeled “uncoachable” by some (for which he had to answer too many times) after Randy Carlyle was fired. He was certainly always miscast in Toronto as the lead dog on a bad team and his skill left you wondering what he could achieve with a real No. 1 centre and a lineup more fit to contend than tank.
Turns out that “uncoachable” suggestion came at the tail end of Kessel’s tenure in Toronto as he was shipped to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a trade that summer. He didn’t hit the 30-goal mark in his first year with the Penguins, but he did get 26 and added another 10 in 24 playoff games on the HBK Line — enough to warrant Conn Smythe consideration.
Finally, Kessel had found a place where he could fit in and be accepted for what he is on the ice and who he is off it.
“On the ice, he’s a guy who can change a game pretty quick with the way he shoots the puck and his playmaking ability,” Sidney Crosby told Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun. “He doesn’t need a lot of time and space to make plays.”
“As far as off the ice, he brings an easy going attitude. He doesn’t take things too seriously. He’s pretty laid back. There are a lot of different personalities in the room and you need that. You need different personalities in the room to break up the monotony of every day.”
No longer the face of the franchise having to answer for a poorly-built team, Kessel has seemed much looser and at home in Pittsburgh than he ever was in Toronto, even if he enjoyed playing in the city.
After last year’s Stanley Cup win when the Penguins visited The White House, Kessel even got a shout out from President Barack Obama who congratulated him personally for being a champion.
And then, of course, Kessel made his own unofficial run at the presidency in the lead up to this November’s election, even if he’s technically not old enough yet to run for the office.
With 10 goals and 31 points in 30 games so far this season, Kessel is quietly putting together an impressive season behind Crosby. Kessel is on pace for one of the best point-producing seasons of his career even though his goal totals aren’t picking back up to that 30-goal pace — he could set a new personal best for assists playing alongside Evgeni Malkin.
He’s more widely appreciated now than he ever was as a Maple Leaf, although Team USA decided to leave him off their World Cup roster, which they’d probably take a do-over for. Building a team on toughness and grit rather than speed and skill is obviously not where the game is going. Kessel is the kind of player his country needs to contend at those international events.
But even that snub didn’t really get to Kessel. After the Americans were eliminated from contention, he took a little shot at team management (not at the players):
You have to wonder, though, if Kessel would have taken back that tweet, considering it put him right back in the media spotlight he doesn’t always appear comfortable in…
Jokes surely are still made about Kessel’s appearance because he doesn’t look like a top athlete in a tremendously demanding sport, but even now those pokes seem to be more laughing with him than at him.
Kessel certainly isn’t bothered by any of it. He embraces it and lets the outside criticism roll off his back — that’s who he is.
“He brings a lot of laughs and that’s great,” Crosby told the Sun.
