Fair is Fair

Phil Kessel has three things working against him when he goes into Boston to face his old  team.

One, a wall of boos. Two, Zdeno Chara, all 6-foot-9 of him, is standing in front of him. Three, his own lack of options.

See, I don't believe for a second Kessel is intimidated by Boston's hockey hostility. This is a kid, don't forget, who spurned his hometown University of Wisconsin Badgers to go out-of-state and play for the hated Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota as a teenager.

He's been a target since he was 13 and he's not afraid of hard choices - like telling the B's he didn't want to play there anymore - or putting himself in the line of fire.

But Kessel lacks different approaches to different problems, not surprising for a young man who just turned 23. Playing his usual speed game isn't going to work against Boston, or hasn't so far, and it would do him a lot of good, and his team, if he spent a little more time battling in the crease than backing away from it a la Jimmy Carson.

Again, it's not that Kessel's scared. It's more along the lines of that like goalscorers like Brett Hull, he figures finding open space is the way to score goals, not going to where all the checkers are.

But the way the boring Bruins so effectively pack the slot and crease, there's just no way goals are going to be found on the periphery, particularly after Claude Julien's club gets a lead (playoffs excepted, apparently, as the Flyers could testify to.)

What will be interesting, meanwhile, is how, or if, the ACC crowd chooses to support its scoring star when the Bruins come to town Dec. 4.

Targetting opposing players to constant booing is nothing new in this league. All's fair in hockey and war, and Toronto, the place that booed Bobby Orr, has happily booed Daniel Alfredsson of the Senators for years, apparently for his run-in with Darcy Tucker in the playoffs.

It's not just T.O., of course. Chris Pronger gets booed in Edmonton. Actually, he gets booed everywhere. Dion Phaneuf, for reasons hard to explain, was the target of boos at Madison Square Garden in New York when the Leafs visited there recently, giving the MSG fans a temporary break from booing Michal Roszival.

Anyways, it's tit-for-tat, and Ottawa has tried to reply to the taunting of Alfredsson by booing various Leaf players, from Mats Sundin to Kessel.

So if you're a Leaf fan, how do you respond to what Bruin fans are doing to Kessel? (The "Thank You, Kessel" chant last night was particulary biting. And funny.)

Why, boo 18-year-old Tyler Seguin, of course. That won't please the family of Seguin, a GTA lad, but fair is fair.

If Kessel has to face years of dealing with boos every time he goes to whatever name the Boston rink has this week, then Leaf fans, if they're competitive (or even in their seats paying attention), might as well fire back at Seguin.

Makes you think that a playoff series between these two towns could be an awful lot of fun.

 

 

Comments

[Steve]

Actually I believe we boo Alfie because of the fake stick throwing incident in which he mocked Sundin, as well as the Tucker incident

[Conn Smythe]

'The playoffs are a very physical time for hockey players and it is still to be determined how Kessel will be able to perform in the playoffs when he is the point guy everyone will be going after.'

Well, Shawn Owens, seeing as how Kessel has 15 points in 15 play - off games (9 goals, 6 assists) I'm not too worried about how he will perform in the play - offs.

[Conn Smythe]

'By the way....for Toronto fans to having booed Bobby Orr, the greatest player to ever play the game, is utter foolishness. I guess, the fans here know absolutely nothing about the game of hockey.' Thanks for the laugh, Rick but you are incorrect (as usual). Leaf fans weren't booing Orr because he was the greatest player ever to play the game. Read 'Searching for Bobby Orr' and Orr's incident with Conacher (of the Leafs) to understand why Leaf fans were really booing 'saintly' Orr.

[Matt]

Personally, I think the Raycroft for Rask deal would be spurning Leafs fans more than the Kessel-Seguin deal. Kessel at least has value, I don't think he's a "franchise" player, the way Seguin seems to be projected, but there's nothing wrong with scoring 30-40 goals every year.

[Steve C]

Seguin will not get booed at the ACC, in fact he'll probably get cheered when he scores (perhaps even sarcastically), and so he should. It's already painful to realize we missed a chance to have a local boy star for the Leafs. The problem with booing Kessel is that it's a bit ridiculous to boo your leading scorer, otherwise we probably should - just to give Burke a message.

[Pyramid Power]

I thought Boston fans should have been chanting, "Thank you Burke." He made the deal. Bruins fans are not classy people, and slamming a 21-year-old kid when he left there who had just finished scoring 36 goals is just sad. Especially with their Bruin legends in the house for the Milt Schmidt sweater retirement ceremony.

I still think Toronto will win this trade. I think the ACC faithful should chant, "Thank you Chiarelli" every time Kessel scores against Boston but that likely won't happen. ACC stands for the Air Canada Coffin which pains me deeply to say. Far far too quiet far too often.

Leafs had a lot of chances last night including the Caputi clanger off the post that would have given them a crucial lead. Tim Thomas was the difference, and saved the day for Boston.
And we do not have any secondary scoring.
Time to pull out the $4 million in cap space Burkie, and go get David Backes.
GO LEAFS GO!

[Boo Boo Bear]

For James who asked about Jimmy Carson above. Carson was the major piece sent to Edmonton in the Gretzky trade with LA. He was very skilled but shied away from the "down and dirty" areas of the offensive zone.
Speaking of Gretzky, I remember after the trade, when LA came to Edmonton in the playoffs, HE was booed there, shadowed by Tikkanen and then Buchberger, and run into the glass by Messier.

[Grinch]

Kessel left Boston because he wasn't willing to sign for the $3-3.5 million per year he was offered. He felt he was worth $5 million per. He didn't just ask Chiarelli to trade him, as most players would have done. Instead, he found a GM who agreed to his price and was willing to orchestrate a trade to get him. This put Chiarelli and the Bruins in a tough position: they had no choice but to trade him to the Leafs. Chiarelli made the most of a bad situation by suggesting Nashville would meet Toronto's offer, and Burke blinked--he upped the offer from the mandatory minimum of a first-, a second-, and a third-round pick to two first-rounders and a second rounder. That's why Bruins fans jeer Kessel: for his greed, lack of loyalty and putting the B's in a tough position. The time may come when he goes behind the back of whoever the then GM of the Leafs is--that's what kind of person he's shown himself to be.

[Bill Hunt]

Cox:
What did Seguin do to deserve booing the first time he comes back to his hometown? All he did was get drafted and earn a spot on the team. Kessel turned his back on Boston, as has been noted, after the fans supported him in his comeback from testicular cancer.
Oh, and Seguin has already scored more goals in his career against Toronto than Kessel has against Boston...I guess that deserves booing...also, you're showing your age. Not many current hockey fans remember Jimmy Carson at all let alone an obscure reference to how he used to play...it's the 21st century now, man. Pay attention!

[Boston Bob]

Booing top players on an opposing team is actually an honor, in most cases. Boston's booing of Kessell is different of course, but Toronto booing Orr back in the day is a sign of respect. You don't typically boo a guy you have little history with unless he's great. It's bad form to cheer an opposing player; it's a lack of respect for your own team. The only time fans are able to do it without disrespecting their own team is in a rare cirumstance that aren't really definable, but typically they are towards the end of said players career.

Kessell is a selfish premadona who is scared to mix it up so he's an easy target. Very talented player, but will never be as effective as he could be because he has no grit or heart or loyalties. He's booed in Boston because of this.

The booing of Kessell and Orr cannot be compared as they are different.

Seguin said after the game he hoped he got to the point where he was booed in other arena's some day. He said that because he knows that means he'd be a top flight player when that happens.

[Greg]

"He didn't just ask Chiarelli to trade him, as most players would have done. Instead, he found a GM who agreed to his price and was willing to orchestrate a trade to get him"
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The problem with this thinking is that he was a restricted free agent. If Chiarelli had traded him some other place where the GM wouldn't have agreed to his price, that GM would have been faced with the same situation Chiarelli was facing (the threat of an offer sheet). So the Bruins would have either gotten much less for him in doing so, or they wouldn't have been able to deal him at all.