TORONTO – Phil Kessel heard plenty of wide-ranging boos as previous Maple Leafs seasons went awry. In his return to Air Canada Centre, they were directed at him.
Fans booed Kessel each time he touched the puck in his first game back with the Pittsburgh Penguins since his complicated Toronto tenure came to a close with a July 1 trade.
Kessel didn’t score but played 18:07 of a 4-0 Penguins rout Saturday night, their fourth victory in a row and seventh in their past eight games. His former team lost its sixth straight to fall to 1-7-2.
There was no sort of video tribute or acknowledgment of Kessel, despite him being the franchise’s best player of this era. Aside from the boos, his return went by with a whimper.
Earlier in the day, Kessel called it strange to be back in Toronto as an opposing player. He remarked that the stalls seemed taller in the visiting locker-room when he couldn’t quite toss his helmet on top on the first try.
“It’s a little different,” Kessel said after the morning skate.
“Different feeling. But I love this city, and it’s good to be back.”
Kessel already faced his former teammates in Pittsburgh in mid-October, but Saturday marked his return to the city in which he became an NHL star and the place he called home for six years. Now on to his next chapter with the Penguins, the 28-year-old right-winger didn’t feel it was the time to reflect on why things didn’t work out in Toronto.
“You’re going to have to ask (Leafs management),” Kessel said. “Obviously I signed here to be here. I made a commitment. That’s how it goes. It’s hockey, right? It’s a business, and you move on.”
The US$64-million, eight-year contract Kessel signed with the Leafs is only in its second season. Toronto traded him to Pittsburgh on July 1 in exchange for a conditional pick, defenceman Scott Harrington, forward Nick Spaling and prospect Kasperi Kapanen.
Kessel had 181 goals and 213 assists for 394 points in 446 regular-season games with the Leafs and had six points in the seven-game series against the Boston Bruins in the 2013 playoffs.
“He led the team in scoring, I think, every year,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “I’m sure he would’ve liked to get a few more wins and have things end a little bit differently, but I think he did a good job here.”
Kessel was a complicated figure and the subject of plenty of criticism in Toronto as the Leafs’ best player. Captain Dion Phaneuf said recently that “what’s happened in the past is done,” and Crosby believes it was a bit of a product of the intense spotlight.
“There’s ups and downs during the season, and there’s obviously a lot of attention on the team here,” Crosby said.
“He was a big part of the team for a long time here, so I’m sure that a lot of that pressure and responsibility kind of sat on his shoulders.”
In Pittsburgh, there’s less pressure on Kessel because he’s on the same team with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, defenceman Kris Letang and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. That core won the Stanley Cup in 2009, and adding Kessel was a bit of a luxury.
Trading Kessel was the result of the Leafs’ organizational belief that “the core group, it hadn’t worked,” according to president Brendan Shanahan at the time. Most of the core returned, but Kessel’s departure left a major hole that the team has struggled filling.
The Leafs are averaging under two goals a game so far, and Phaneuf is their leading scorer with seven points – all assists.
Meanwhile, the Penguins are starting to click after a rough start. Coach Mike Johnston said that while there is an adjustment, he’s pleased with how Kessel has received messages.
Saying he has “no regrets” about his time with the Leafs, Kessel tried to signal he had moved on by reminding reporters he had faced the Leafs before from 2006-2009 with the Bruins.
“I played against the Leafs my first few years in the league, so I’ve been in this dressing-room before,” Kessel said. “It’s different because I love this city and I spent a lot of time here.”
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