So when is Phil Kessel going to join the Penguins playoff party?
I’m thinking Wednesday night in Philadelphia for Game 4 against the Flyers would be the perfect time. That seems especially true because Patric Hornqvist isn’t going to play. The Penguins are going to need more than Kessel gave them in the first three games, maybe not to take out the Flyers but to make a serious run at a third consecutive Stanley Cup.
Three games are three games, I get that. Kessel certainly is capable of a big Game 4 and many more big games ahead. The Penguins wouldn’t have won the Stanley Cup without him in 2016 when he had 10 goals and a team-leading 22 points in 24 playoff games and easily could have won the Conn Smythe Award instead of Sidney Crosby. He was huge again in the Cup run a year ago when he had eight goals and 23 points in 25 games, although his production dipped in the second half of the tournament. He had a strong year this season with 34 goals and 92 points.
The Penguins need Kessel to be that player. It’s unrealistic and unfair to expect Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to continue to carry the team the way they did in the first three games, Crosby with four goals and seven points and Malkin with two goals and three points. Kessel has to pitch in more. All three of the team’s stars need to be stars.
Kessel has just one goal in the past 11 postseason games dating to last season, none in the past eight road games. He has just one even-strength goal in the past 14 playoff games.
What’s more troubling is Kessel isn’t shooting the puck. He has attempted 14 shots in these playoffs, including four that were on goal. In the 2016 postseason, he attempted 175 shots and led the NHL with 98 on goal. Last spring, he had 153 attempts and put 68 on goal.
Did I mention the Penguins need Kessel to be that player?
Mike Sullivan knows it. That’s why he put Kessel back on Malkin’s line in Game 3 after using Kessel on Derick Brassard’s line in the first two games. He called it “an opportunity to get Phil going a little bit” and said Tuesday he thought Kessel had his best game of the series. Kessel, who is much underrated as a passer, had an assist on Brassard’s power-play goal in Game 3 for his only point of the series. He also set up Crosby for an open-net shot late on a power play in the second period of Game 2, but Crosby chipped the puck wide.
“They can be dynamic,” Sullivan said of Kessel and Malkin. “They’re two elite players that, when they have the puck, they’re as dangerous a tandem as there is in the league. They’ve shown an ability to play well together in the past.”
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It’s fair to wonder just how healthy Kessel is. Sullivan is in a tough spot with him because of his phenomenal ironman streak. It probably would have benefitted Kessel and the Penguins if he had sat for a game or two late in the season because of a variety of ailments, but he kept playing to maintain his regular-season consecutive-games streak, now at 692, the ninth-longest streak in NHL history. That number jumps to 751 if you include playoff games.
“I’ve had a number of discussions with him over the last couple of weeks,” Sullivan told the Post-Gazette’s Jason Mackey earlier this month. “He wants to play. He feels strong enough to get in there and help us win. I think it’s a testament to his mental toughness, his passion to win and his willingness to endure the bumps and bruises it takes to be successful in this league.”
Kessel clearly was ailing before the Penguins played the Blue Jackets April 5 in Columbus. That didn’t keep him from scoring the Penguins’ first goal and winning the game in overtime with a rocket shot.
“There aren’t too many guys that are going to score that goal,” Sullivan said. “The puck comes off his stick differently. It just does. He has such a deceptive release. He’s accurate. The velocity. It’s as hard of a wrist shot as I’ve ever seen.”
That’s why Sullivan isn’t sweating over Kessel’s three-game start. He always expects Kessel’s next game to be a big game. Kessel’s teammates expect the same.
“He can change a game with one shot,” Crosby said.
Wednesday night wouldn’t be too soon for Kessel to be that player.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter@RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Poni” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: April 18, 2018, 10:00 a.m.
