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Phil Kessel

Although I'm not the biggest fan of Lyle Richardson/Spector (he's a little bit too much of the anti-Eklund for me), he wrote a pretty good piece on Kessel as an early favorite for the Hart.  Also nice things to say about his development.  Apologies if this has been referenced already.

http://spectorshockey.net/wordpress/2011/12/04/kessel-among-early-favorites-for-hart-trophy/


"For the first time, Leafs Nation is allowing itself to admit ?The Kessel Trade? maybe wasn?t so bad after all.

For the record, that also includes me.While not a Leafs fan, I was very critical of this trade when it went down, and in the following two seasons continued to believe Leafs GM Brian Burke gave up too much for Kessel.

If he continues his strong play over the course of this season, however, I?ll have no problem eating crow. It?s good to see Kessel has matured, improved, risen to the challenges, and become a leader in arguably the NHL?s most demanding market.

Kessel?s performance in the first quarter of this season ? leading in goals and points, improving his overall game, his role in the resurgence of Lupul, and maintaining that high standard when the club was riddled with injuries ? has in my opinion made him an early favorite for the Hart Trophy."
 
LuncheonMeat said:
Although I'm not the biggest fan of Lyle Richardson/Spector (he's a little bit too much of the anti-Eklund for me), he wrote a pretty good piece on Kessel as an early favorite for the Hart.  Also nice things to say about his development.  Apologies if this has been referenced already.

http://spectorshockey.net/wordpress/2011/12/04/kessel-among-early-favorites-for-hart-trophy/


"For the first time, Leafs Nation is allowing itself to admit ?The Kessel Trade? maybe wasn?t so bad after all.

For the record, that also includes me.While not a Leafs fan, I was very critical of this trade when it went down, and in the following two seasons continued to believe Leafs GM Brian Burke gave up too much for Kessel.

If he continues his strong play over the course of this season, however, I?ll have no problem eating crow. It?s good to see Kessel has matured, improved, risen to the challenges, and become a leader in arguably the NHL?s most demanding market.

Kessel?s performance in the first quarter of this season ? leading in goals and points, improving his overall game, his role in the resurgence of Lupul, and maintaining that high standard when the club was riddled with injuries ? has in my opinion made him an early favorite for the Hart Trophy."
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Nice assessment and basically everything we've noted about Kessel's improved play.  He's right though, if Kessel had only stayed as that streaky scorer we saw the first 2 seasons, then the trade for him was a failure.  The fact that he seems to be emerging as an all-around player and point producer makes this a good trade for the Leafs.  I look forward to seeing how high he can climb in the next few seasons.
 
Zee said:
Tigger said:
Oh c'mon, he was 'in' the Boston games.
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Sure, but he was effectively shut down well in those games.  The point is, aside from those games he hasn't had extended periods of being totally shut down by teams.  He did last year.
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He was back checking and had 8 shots and a nice assist on Lupuls goal. I agree with your point otherwise though, there were many times last year where he was invisible, not back checking and not generating chances when being unproductive on the score sheet.
 
LuncheonMeat said:
Although I'm not the biggest fan of Lyle Richardson/Spector (he's a little bit too much of the anti-Eklund for me)
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For my money one can't be anti Eklund enough.
 
Tigger said:
LuncheonMeat said:
Although I'm not the biggest fan of Lyle Richardson/Spector (he's a little bit too much of the anti-Eklund for me)
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For my money one can't be anti Eklund enough.
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I agree.  ;D  I suppose I meant he tends to have such a negative spin on everything he reports/comments on.
 
LuncheonMeat said:
Tigger said:
LuncheonMeat said:
Although I'm not the biggest fan of Lyle Richardson/Spector (he's a little bit too much of the anti-Eklund for me)
Click to expand...

For my money one can't be anti Eklund enough.
Click to expand...

I agree.  ;D  I suppose I meant he tends to have such a negative spin on everything he reports/comments on.
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It's a fair comment in a way, I've noticed he's gone out of his way to debunk all things Eklund etc. too and I've posted about it but I don't think he's been overly negative about much outside of the likelihood of certain speculation out there, even then I think he's more 'realistic' than negative, fwiw.
 
Busta Reims said:
Not only has Kessel not gone consecutive games without a point, he's yet to go pointless twice in any stretch of 3 games.
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Crosby hasn't scored a goal in his last 7 games! Bum!
 
Saint Nik said:
Fanatic said:
Claude Giroux is now 2 points ahead of Kessel and he has still played one games less.
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You got a little breathless typing that, admit it.
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Why on earth would that make me breathless? It's unfortunate but not totally unexpected.

Why is a Phil Kessel thread, where talk of him being in the scoring lead for the past 6 or 7 weeks has been the norm, not also the place to say, you know, that someone has passed him.

 
Kessel-Guitar.jpg
 
@jonasTSN1050 Jonas Siegel
Lupul and Kessel join Daniel Sedin as only players in top-10 league scoring who have not gone more than 1 game without a point this season.
2 hours ago via web
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@jonasTSN1050 Jonas Siegel
Correct. My mistake. Lupul and Kessel the only two. ?@EhBow: @jonasTSN1050 Didn't D. Sedin go 2 games without a point Oct 25th & 26?
8 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone
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Not bad for a player who's apparently spent half the season in a scoring slump.
 
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