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| Toronto Globe and Mail |
Wow! I would not want to be Phil Kessel right now, since being traded to the Toronto Maples Leafs from the Boston Bruins; Kessel has scored one assist against his former team in nine games, that is not very good at all for a player that has made a living scoring goals. Check out this article about Kessel in today's Toronto Globe and Mail, sounds like Phil is having a rough go at it.
Globe and Mail ---- With reporters and cameras beginning to gather around Phil Kessel for his latest words of wisdom on Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs winger looked over at his neighbour in the dressing room and said: “They’re here for you.”I for the life of me can’t understand why anyone would want to play hockey in Toronto. Second, I also would not want to be an American hockey player playing in Toronto either, sounds like a night mare waiting to happen. In my humble opinion Toronto fans are the worst fans, they sound like entitlement hockey fans. Third Toronto Maple Leaf's fans are very hard on their team and their favorite team's players. It seems like they are focusing extra hard on the Americans players and or players that played college hockey in the USA.
Former C.C. Tiger Joey Crabb simply grinned.
Alas, that was wishful thinking for Toronto’s notoriously withdrawn goal scorer, who again becomes the reluctant centre of attention with the Leafs facing his former team, the Bruins, in Boston on Tuesday night.
Such is the problem when you’re dealt to a division rival: You see them six times a year and it makes for an easy storyline every time you do.
“How many times have I played there?” Kessel asked as he walked away from the mass of media. “It feels like 35.”
That it’s only four speaks to just how memorable those trips have been. Kessel’s only other visit to Boston this season ended with a 2-0 Toronto loss and the Beantown fans serenading him with a mocking “Thank you,” a response to the 2009 trade that gave them three high draft picks.
Including five games at the Air Canada Centre, Kessel has now played his former team nine times, going scoreless with one assist for his worst points-per-game output against any NHL team in his 348-game career.
Making matters worse this time around is the worst goal-scoring slumps of his career. If he fails to break his current string against the Bruins, Kessel will match a career high of 15 consecutive games without a goal.
“Right now, it’s a tough stretch, I guess, to say the least,” Kessel said. “I gotta be better. I gotta figure out a way to get them in the net.”
Teammates keep an optimistic view. “It’s exciting to play with him right now,” Joffrey Lupul said of his new linemate, “because you know any one of these games he’s going to break out.”
Kessel’s apparent frustration with his coach, meanwhile, has become a cause for debate in Toronto, but it hasn’t persuaded the Leafs bench boss to limit his criticisms. Asked Monday about the continued funk the team’s highest paid forward is in, Ron Wilson didn’t hold back.
I don't see this same thing happening in Montreal where they have two Americans as their captains; Brian Gionta "C" as well as Hall Gill "A" both are Americans as well as former college hockey players.
I don’t know what the problem in Toronto is, maybe it’s because they have sucked so bad for so long and they are just scape goating the Americans players, I remember watching the same thing when Jason Blake played for the Leafs.
