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The ****ing Season thread, 2015/16 Edition

You've heard of the concept of shielding players right? He is a 3rd liner with bad attitude. Needed to get out of town with a young team. Can't be your best player.

On the other hand, I can't wait for people to ridicule Simmons and other "journalists". Phil had a bad attitude for a young team but a hot dog crazed fat man he was not.
 
Kessel isn't a guy you build a young team around because of his approach to the game. Teams need leaders that live and breath hockey, not the "its just hockey" attitude. But he's a great hockey player, and he is showing it. You can't really deny that and call him a 3rd liner. He is one of the best players left playing right now, and he is arguably the biggest reason the Pens are 2 wins from a Cup final.
 
It's funny how it's worked out for Phil in Pittsburgh. A lot of people figured he'd score 50 on Sid or Malkin's wing, but in the end, he didn't work at all with either of them and didn't find any success until he ended up getting put with a Bozak-esque 2nd/3rd line center in Nick Bonino. Maybe Phil just really does need to be the focal point of his line to be successful.

It's pretty ideal for Pittsburgh though. I know the initial intent of the deal on their end was to land a top-shelf winger for one of their big centers, but being able to roll a weapon like Phil out on your "third line" gives the team some pretty intimidating depth up and down their lineup.
 
leafman101 said:
Kessel isn't a guy you build a young team around because of his approach to the game. Teams need leaders that live and breath hockey, not the "its just hockey" attitude. But he's a great hockey player, and he is showing it. You can't really deny that and call him a 3rd liner. He is one of the best players left playing right now, and he is arguably the biggest reason the Pens are 2 wins from a Cup final.
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By third liner I didn't mean to degrade his skills. In that department he is a first liner through and through. What I mean is that in Pittsburgh he is playing on lower lines and, more importantly, he is being shielded by actual leaders on the team.

Basically what you said. He cannot be your best player and the face of the franchise. That's why shanny was desperate to get him out of here.

(Well that and the fact that his deal may look ugly toward the end of the contract)
 
hobarth said:
We've seen a player who has been consistently superior offensively be considered a cancer/a coach killer
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You mean the guy who has been the best player in the playoffs on a team with Gino Malkin and Sid Crosby? Seems real cancerous these days, eh?

so I would say that being alarmed about one of TO's top potential players is justified.
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Well sure, if you're going to compare a guy who admitted to not skating in the offseason to a kid who worked his balls off to put on 10 pounds of muscle last summer.

I would think that high engine players are born not molded/developed, Kessel is/was what he is/was no matter who coached him.
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Sure, but again, to compare Nylander's engine to Kessel's engine is ridiculous.
 
I'm happy he's gone. The fact that he could just not try for an entire year and be a terrible role model for the kids we are trying to mold over here was enough for me.

He is a very good hockey player when he wants to be. He is in a good situation now and hopefully he continues to do well in Pittsburgh but still very happy we moved on.
 
I'm glad he's gone, but I'm not glad that the best we were able to put around him while he was here was Dion Phaneuf, Tyler Bozak, JVR, Lupul, Kris Versteeg, etc, etc, etc. We're seeing what he likely would have done in a Leaf jersey if we had built any sort of a decent team while he was here.

Is he the guy to follow to the promised land? No, but as soon as you take that burden off of his shoulders, this is what you get.
 
We wasted the entire time Kessel was here. We couldn't get the right pieces to build with him. I'm glad he's gone because he isn't a franchise player that can lead a group. He is a franchise level talent that can help you win games though. Maybe in a few years we've built up our roster enough to acquire a Kessel level talent to win us some games. Hell, Marner looks like a Kessel level talent but with a better attitude.

I liked Kessel. I didn't like his attitude. Not his fault he was thrust into a leadership role where its not in his DNA to lead. Quiet guy that keeps to himself and doesn't like the spotlight. Nothing wrong with that until you put him in a position he shouldn't be in.

I really thought he'd finish his career as the Leafs all time leading goal scorer.
 
Kessel is the kind of player that you add to a good team to put them over the top. The shitty part was he was the start of our build and looked to as the guy which is a role he has never been able to play.
 
Burke and Nonis' teams were full of players that could have contributed to a winning team but were placed in wrong roles.
 
If we have Kessel this year, there's no Matthews or any other top pick. He did need to go. We'll be happy for that for years to come.
That said, we always defended him on this board and spoke about his great playoff stats.
I also think my rants about defensive hockey being horrifically overrated is true. You need goals. You do win with guys like Kessel.
 
leafman101 said:
Thats what happens when you try to build a team through free agency and trades. You can't buy everything you need.
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Yes, every core player had an asterik of some sort next to his name, and in the end, the team were always ALMOST good enough, and fell apart at the worst possible time for that reason.

And the fact the 'fast track rebuild' took even longer than a strip to the bone rebuild just made it extra painful
 
number17 said:
Yes, every core player had an asterik of some sort next to his name, and in the end, the team were always ALMOST good enough, and fell apart at the worst possible time for that reason.

And the fact the 'fast track rebuild' took even longer than a strip to the bone rebuild just made it extra painful
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Is the rebuild over?:confused5:
 
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