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Superstars are allowed to have shortcomings?
Serious question. Think about it for a second. In fact, follow these instructions.......
1) Look up toward the ceiling (avoid directly glaring at the light bulb).
2) Rub your finger tips along your chin.
3) Smirk. For the hell of it.
4) Think about the top basketball, baseball, I don't know...badminton players of the world.
Now ask yourself this......
Why can't the Bruins just be content with what Phil Kessel brings to the table? I know, I know. It's a hot, but oft-discussed topic lately, however, I wanted to view it from a wider perspective.
You know the story by now. It appears the 21-year-old RW is on the outs in Beantown. Too soft, not physical enough, not tall enough, not mean enough....whatever the reason may be, it's all a farce. Has anyone ever read or heard any of the following statements?
"That Albert Pujols, decent player, but he just doesn't steal enough bases."
"Tim Duncan would be a great player to have....were it not for his complete inability to hit 3-pointers."
"Tom Brady's got a nice arm, sure, but when was the last time he scrambled and ran for more than 10 yards?"
The fact is you don't hear such things, and you never will. Yet, here we are, watching as the Bruins anxiously try to sever ties with the most talented player to come through the organization in a long, long time. Here we are, counting down the seconds til the B's make a blunder that will supersede the Joe Thornton trade. We hold our breath as Peter Chiarelli, General Manager and resident capologist, tries his hardest to ship out a budding superstar cause he doesn't have enough grit. One would think leading your team in scoring during the postseason while toughing it out with a torn labrum and rotator cuff would be sufficient, but, who am I to judge what toughness is?
Why is putting together a hockey team suddenly strikingly similar to a factory assembling robots? Since when does everyone need to possess identical skillsets? Hey Peter, you're the general manager of a hockey team, not Count Dooku putting together the clone army. There is a monumental difference between the two, last I checked.
Look at, oh, say the Oakland A's of the early '90s. Perfect (old school) example of players executing their roles. Rickey Henderson would get on base, McGwire and Canseco would get extra base hits and pile up RBIs, Bob Welch and Dave Stewart would make quality starts, and Dennis Eckersley would close the door in the 9th. You could use a thousand similar examples. The point is.....
It takes all kinds.
No one harped on Henderson cause he didn't hit for power. No one got on McGwire for not hitting .300. No one thought anything less of Welch's astonishing 27 wins because he didn't strike out a ton of batters.
Phil Kessel will never be Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg, that we know for certain. But to blindly ignore the progress he has made defensively since being drafted would be foolish. #81 is no defensive stalwart, no future Selke nominee, but he is certainly sufficient in his own zone (best exemplified this year when, on a number of occasions, Kessel found himself on the ice protecting a lead in the final minute).
Why is defensive sufficiency not enough to satisfy the B's? You can have a roster chock full of giant goliaths and be the toughest team in the universe. But, if there's no one to consistently put the "biscuit in the basket" (a la Kessel), what do you wind up with? A championship caliber team, or one that outworks their opponent on a nightly basis but continuously falls just shy of capturing the cup?
Did the Utah Jazz give up on John Stockton, the nine-time league leader in assists, cause he never blocked enough shots?
Did the Miami Dolphins send Dan Marino, arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, out of town because he never rushed for more than 66 yards in a single season?
Of course not. Yet, seemingly every professional hockey player can never come up in conversation without discussing their flaws. Sidney Crosby yaps too much. Mike Green isn't a shutdown defender. Ilya Kovalchuk doesn't pass enough. Derek Roy is just too small.
And you know what? Were I a GM, for what they're all capable of, I could live with that. I'd deal with the occasional ref rants if Crosby could help carry my team to a championship. I'd let Green, the offensively explosive blueliner, fine-tune his defensive game over time if it meant the kind of goal scoring he'd provide. I'd let Ilya Kovalchuk fire 500 shots on net. I'd welcome Roy's abilities and quickness any day. I'm not the rollercoaster attendant at a carnival, so who cares if he isn't six feet tall?
For some reason Phil Kessel has no such luxury in Boston. The folks who drafted him (did they not know what they were getting?), have come to the realization that Phil will never be 6'3", lead the league in hits, or garner the reputation of being the greatest defensive forward to ever dawn the spoked-B. His 50-goal potential is meaningless, his unrivaled speed and game-breaking abilities, thanks to his lack of size and jam, are rendered moot.
We're just a little more than a day away from free agency kicking off. Kessel could be traded or sign an offer sheet with a team who doesn't fail to recognize the immense talent he is. At this point, who would blame him? How could he possibly feel genuinely wanted here in the Hub of Hockey?
Should Kessel depart, godspeed my friend. No one 'round these parts should have any ill will if you decide to setup shop elsewhere. We've been around long enough to know that, unless you're asking for somewhere north of $5m per season, that the Bruins could find some way to keep you in the fold. For some reason, one I'll clearly never understand, it seems like they just don't want to.
I haven't made a reference to my Dad in quite some time, so I'll close this out with a recent quote from him:
"If they trade Kessel....I hope he burns us for years. I hope he skates around the Garden holding the Stanley Cup."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
JC
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