Kessel gets first goal in 14 games sinks former team.

Former Boston Bruins and current Maples Leaf Phil Kessel had one assist in nine games against his former team the Boston Bruins. Tonight miraculously the young Leaf forward Kessel regained his scoring touch and scored two goals against his former team. The two goals that Kessel scored were of the high light variety. With the two goals Kessel snaps an unimpressive 14-game scoreless drought. Kind of a big ef you from Phil to his former team the Boston Bruins... Also, earlier today it was rumored that Tomas Kaberle had waived his no trade clause so he could be traded to the Boston Bruins. I must say no thank you!!!

Bruins last team Kessel wants see...

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.”

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Alas, that was wishful thinking for Toronto’s notoriously withdrawn goal scorer, who again becomes the reluctant centre of attention with the Leafs facing his former team, the Bruins, in Boston on Tuesday night.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 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.

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.

Jason Blakes pretty goal.

Last night in Columbus it was the Jason Blake and Phil Kessel show. Check out this pretty goal by former Fighting Sioux forward Jason Blake. This was the second win in a row for the Toronto Maple Leafs that have a 5-1-2 record in their last 8 games.

My Favourite Hockey Moment

I got an email from somebody the other day, asking me to describe my favourite moment or event in hockey. Is it the gold medal game in Salt Lake City? Was it Jason Pominville’s goal in O.T. against Ottawa in 2005? I can't pin point one thing but a recent series of events is a joy to behold.

My favourite hockey moment is any time the Toronto Maple Leafs lose a game.

I don’t have an axe to grind with the Leafs as a team. They’re so bad there isn’t much point worrying about them. Having said that, the hiring of Brian Burke is the first shrewd management decision since hiring Cliff Fletcher in the 90’s.

Burke does have his faults. He is a media whore and blowhard but I think he’s a decent evaluator of talent. At some point the Leafs will be a competitive hockey team because a blind squirrel, with a max payroll, eventually finds a nut.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the losing and the theatre it brings. The Leafs’ on ice performance has all the drama and conflict of a classic Greek tragedy but when the lights dim the real fun begins.

To say media saturation in Toronto is overkill is being kind because it’s like trade deadline day, everyday, around here. The media feeds the beast that is a hyper self conscious Leafs Nation. To say Toronto fans are blind and illogical is being unkind to those who are.

The human male has a difficult time controlling emotions, especially for sports, but it makes for interesting post game audio. Blathering fools, like Steve from Ajax, Ont. or Dom from Owen Sound, Ont., prattle on like know-it-alls who deal in absolute unreality: every hockey player wants to play in Toronto or the eighth ranked blue liner on the Hurricanes is a lump of coal, just waiting to be groomed with the right pressure.

I have a former classmate who’ll suffice for this example. I’ll call him D.G. to protect his identity. He’s fairly smart guy but when it comes to the Leafs, he’s spent too little time in the gene pool.

D.G. is your typical blind but loyal Leafs’ fan. He deals in a by-the-seat-of your-pants mentality because there is never any common sense behind his solutions to fix his beloved hockey team.

It’s the middle of July and D.G. is sitting in a cool and dark classroom looking for a quick fix to 42 years of nothingness. Amid all the usual trash he talks, D.G. thinks the Leafs would get first round picks for Matt Stajan or Mikhail Grabovsky, Columbus would part with Rick Nash for a player off the roster and a few draft picks. Maybe the ultimate problem, “(is) too many Europeans on the roster,” D.G. said.

There is nothing more aggravating than a half assed thought, blurted out with no rhyme or reason but I also find it hysterical.

Sadly, all my joy appears to be fading.

The post game radio shows have settled into a quiet resignation because the season is already over. No winning streaks to get people talking positively, no late season push that has Torontonians thinking Stanley Cup, no thought of hockey when the weather turns warm. It seems Leafs fans have, finally, settled for their allotment in life and it’s causing me great pain.

In the end, I never thought I would say this.

When are these pathetic guys going to win a game?