Leafs Postgame – Kessel Hits Milestone in Leafs Shootout Win Over Bruins

I don’t even want to talk about the game. That’s partly because I already wrote the Team Canada postgame piece earlier and it’s also New Years Eve and such, but mostly because all I want to talk about is Phil Kessel. Sweet Baby Phil, scoring all those goals. He’s the best.

The Leafs were in Boston tonight to play the (not so) big, (not so) bad Bruins. 

It was a largely uneventful first period, besides a goal from a returning Leo Komarov about halfway through the period. The Leafs did something amazing in actually outshooting the Bruins in the first (though, that wouldn’t last), and ended the frame with lead intact.

The second period featured a whole bunch of goals, including one from James van Riemsdyk, on which Kessel assisted, and another which Phil The Thrill scored himself. Those two points are pretty significant, as with those two points, Phil Kessel hit 500 career points. I repeat… FIVE HUNDRED CAREER POINTS. IN SIX HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR GAMES.

Kessel The Best. Let Your Kessel Flags Fly.

Now, there’s a few hundred people who have scored more than 500 points in the NHL, but those are career totals. Kessel has done it in eight years, and probably has another eight or more years left in him. Kessel probably won’t remain a consistent point-per-game guy into his mid-to-late thirties, but even so, he still has a shot at becoming one of the Top 100 point producers in NHL history. Currently, Tony Amonte sits in 100th with 900 career points. That’s pretty cool.

On the other hand, the second period was also a pretty good one for the Boston Bruins, who got goals from Carl Soderberg, David Krejci and Torey Krug. The Leafs would blow another two goal lead, as is tradition, and the game would go into the third period tied at threes. It’d remain that way right through the third and through overtime.

Let’s take a moment to talk about a Leafs player not named Phil Kessel. I mean, I don’t want to but I feel I must, as it’s a pretty important part of the game.

Nazem Kadri won the game for the Leafs in the fifth round of the shootout, on a very pretty deke move that had Tuukka Rask so spun around, he ended up behind the actual net. 

How does that even happen? Nazem Kadri. That’s how.

It’s Phil Kessel. It has to be Phil Kessel. How couldn’t it be Phil Kessel?

Phil Kessel Forever.

The Leafs will travel to Minnesota to take on the Wild on Friday evening. Tune in for more of this guy: