By Mark Madden
June 23, 2018
What a summer: All Kessel, all the time.
The latest installment in the Phil Kessel saga came Friday, when Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said his relationship with Kessel is fine. Sullivan looked mad when he said it, too. Yikes. Better not write or talk about it anymore. (By the way, what else is Sullivan going to say?)
The sympathy pendulum in this reality series is swinging Sullivan's way, because the question begs: Why is Kessel always angry?
Kessel is, you know. He's not happy unless he's unhappy. Kessel doesn't like Sullivan. He won't ever like any head coach. Kessel and Rick Tocchet were close when Tocchet was Sullivan's assistant in Pittsburgh. But if Kessel went to Arizona, where Tocchet is head coach, he'd hate Tocchet inside a week. (That possibility was discussed, incidentally.)
That's just how Kessel is. It doesn't make him a bad person or a bad player. Pittsburgh has embraced him as a cartoon-character anti-hero, and here's guessing the perception of Kessel in the locker room isn't far from that.
But Kessel is decidedly a pain in the backside.
Kessel was selected fifth in the 2006 draft. The four players selected above him have been traded once between them. Kessel got traded twice before he turned 28. His quirkiness tags him with a sell-by date.
Kessel will stay in Pittsburgh, for now. GM Jim Rutherford either can't find a trade partner or has concluded that replacing Kessel's 92 points and excellence on the power play would be difficult. Probably both.
Kessel should be thankful.
Kessel had a career year last season. He complains about Sullivan — that is most certainly true — but the coach apparently deployed him in reasonably effective fashion. Using Kessel, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on separate lines to artificially create balance didn't always work, but still: 92 points.
It's fashionable to tiptoe around Kessel. The Penguins staff does. The media does. The latter group harangued Kessel in Toronto, and some of it was unfair.
But much of the criticism aimed at Kessel is fair and true.
He doesn't practice hard or work hard off the ice. He does the minimum.
He doesn't hit or block shots.
His consecutive-games streak (now at 692) has kept him in the lineup when he's hurt. If Kessel was injured in the playoffs — nobody can agree on that — maybe missing a few games late in the regular season would have helped. But Sullivan didn't scratch him. (That's an example of the tiptoeing.)
As noted, Kessel is a complainer. Consider his campaign to skate on Malkin's line. (Has anybody asked Malkin what he wants?) Kessel was correct to fancy that and often was on Malkin's right.
But how much can you logically kvetch when you're on your way to 92 points? Players often get 92 points (or more) without being a migraine. Crosby and Malkin have done it frequently.
Kessel and the Penguins need each other, but maybe the terms should change.
Kessel is 30. It's time for the hand-holding to stop.
Kessel is fifth on the Penguins' totem pole in terms of importance, trailing Crosby, Malkin, Matt Murray and Kris Letang.
The Penguins hadn't won the Stanley Cup in six years before Kessel arrived. Kessel performed well and the Penguins won two Cups, so Kessel lived up to his part of the bargain and then some.
But the Penguins fixed Kessel.
Before Kessel got to Pittsburgh, he was the butt of jokes. He was the fat schmuck who ate too many hot dogs. Right or wrong, that was the perception. Ask the average hockey fan, and that's what he knew about Kessel.
Since then, President Obama has called Kessel a Stanley Cup champion. President Trump cracked wise about Kessel's sister, Amanda, being a better player. Kessel is a nice guy, tries hard and loves the game. A T-shirt says so. Total makeover.
Kessel has done a lot for the Penguins. But playing for the Penguins has done just as much for Kessel and probably more.
Kessel needs to get past angry and move on to gratitude. At the very least, let gratitude temper that anger.
He won't. Kessel will do what he likes, say what he wants and play as he prefers. Sullivan's relationship with Kessel will remain “fine” as long as the coach works within those confines.
Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).
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