16. One coach on the Crosby/Kessel pairing: ?It?s early. But Kessel?s game is transition, or moving away from the puck to find space for an open shot. Crosby likes to play tight to his teammates, set up that 10-foot pass for a goal. Their games are not compatible, yet.?
The bigger issue may be that Crosby and Kessel both prefer their way. Will they say, ?How can we help each other?? or will they say, ?I need you to change to mesh with me?? The answer determines if they can work it out.
17. Pretty interesting stuff from former Toronto coach Peter Horachek on building a relationship with Kessel.
?Because he is such a quiet player, it takes coaches a really long time to get to know him. And the reason why is that he doesn?t trust very easily. There has to be an opportunity for a coach to spend time?with him over a whole season to get him to trust you.?
He added you have to be really careful when calling out Kessel in front of the team. Sometimes you can?t avoid it, but ?for the most part I think he responds best when it?s one on one with you, so it?s best to bring him into your office to talk.?
The good news for the Penguins is a couple of people compared him to Jeff Carter, who found a great spot as secondary fit in Los Angeles. If that is Kessel?s future, Pittsburgh will gladly take it.
18. One other note about Kessel: while doing some research, information came to me that, during his time in Toronto, he met someone who ran a children?s charity, offered his phone number and said he?d be glad to help. He did. Very quietly, demanding no publicity.
I wanted to include this information in the piece we ran last weekend, but the charity would not do it without his permission. I?m still waiting ? and not holding my breath. But I thought it should be mentioned.