I do understand how this stuff works and I don't mean to belabor the point...but maybe someone will (maybe me) will do this for Crosby, but here are the defensemen that Kessel pointed against in the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs...
Girardi and Staal
Klein and Staal
Staal
Klein and McDonagh
Klein and Yandle
Klein and Staal
Orpik and Schmidt
Carlson and Schmidt
Carlson and Chorney
Niskanen and Alzner
Niskanen and Chorney
Niskanen and Chorney
Garrison and Coburn
Garrison and Sustr
Hedman and Coburn
Garrison and Stralman
Koekkoek and Coburn
Garrison
Dillon and Polak
Dillon and Polak
Vlasic and Braun
Vlasic and Braun
I see some bleh d-men in there for sure...Chorney, Sustr, Koekkoek aren't NHLers...Dillon and Polak were horrendous in the SCF...but he ended with some points against a lot of good players too...I see a few shutdown pairs up there...
I'm not sure where I'm going with this...it's certainly not to contend that you were suggesting all of his points came against third pairing d-men, I know it's not that...but he made the best of the hand he was dealt, the talent matches the stats, and he deserves some credit...because like I said, it's a catch-22 probably...if he played with Sid, it's like "well, Sid helped him to get that" basically, he's either "sheltered" by Sid or "sheltered" by playing on the third line...meaning, basically, no matter what, you can make the claim that he deserved, um, worse (?)...