Everybody is complaining about Kessel and how bad he's been during this stretch. Obviously tonight was one of his worse games as a Leaf, but I'm going to come out and say that the hate is getting ridiculous.
For any other team, people say ____'s been in a slump or he's having a bad year, but for Kessel he gets **** on every opportunity no matter what it is he's doing. People have complained about him not showing emotion and also for not controlling his emotions. He's been called fat, a loser, that he doesn't care about this team, out of shape, one dimensional, entitled, etc., but year after year he's our best player.
I'm fine with people criticizing his play, but he's the most talented player we have and I hope he stays with our team for the future as I have faith in him. I'd rather trade Bozak and even JVR personally. However, I am open to trading him if the return makes sense (same for every player), but I'm not going to shove out a player that could hold franchise scoring records for the Leafs by the end of his career. Kessel needs to be better, but I have more faith in him staying an elite player than I do JVR if Kessel is traded.
Also that damn line ends to be split up. Theres multiple times I've seen Bozak the deepest player and terrible defensively this past game... add JVR and Kessel's below average defensive play and it's obvious that line shouldn't be together.
I'm happy to let PK play through this year, tell him we want him to stay, but we want him to be more of a leader on ice and set an example for the young player as we need him to be on the top of his game if we're going to compete in the future. It seems to be like Kessel cares a lot about winning and is just trying to score as this is what he knows how to do (and therefore contribute to winning more games), I think he'll do what the coach wants if Kessel thinks it's best for the team too.