Low blows: Parting shot at Phil Kessel

It didn’t take long before the Phil Kessel haters in Toronto decided to speak out.  But this is really going a bit too far.

Steve Simmons is a writer for the Toronto Sun.  His article today is titled “Leafs were sick and tired of Phil Kessel.”  I guess Steve is speaking on behalf of the entire organization.  But I doubt it.

He starts off his article with a fat joke.  Classy.

Now I don’t believe his feelings represent the organization and certainly not a proud, if frustrated, fan base.  And I do believe that Toronto will be a power once again under Shanny and Babcock.

But I’m still surprised by this article.  A few choice tidbits:

The hot dog vendor who parks daily at Front and John Sts. just lost his most reliable customer.

Almost every afternoon at 2:30 p.m., often wearing a toque, Phil Kessel would wander from his neighbourhood condominium to consume his daily snack.

And now he’s gone. Just like that. The Maple Leafs could no longer stomach having Kessel around, the first player to be both punished and rewarded for the saddest Leafs season in history. The Leafs held their breath, plugged their noses, and ostensibly gave Kessel to the Pittsburgh Penguins because they couldn’t stand having him around anymore.

Really, this was as much about illness and insomnia as anything else: The Leafs were sick and tired of Kessel.

Sick of his act. Tired of his lack of responsibility. Unwilling to begin any reset or rebuild with their highest-paid, most talented, least-dedicated player. He didn’t eat right, train right, play right. This had to happen for Brendan Shanahan to begin his rebuilding of the Leafs. Separation between the Leafs and Kessel became necessary when it grew more and more apparent with time that everything Shanahan values was upended by Kessel’s singular, laissez-faire, flippant, mostly uncoachable ways.

Time will tell if his comments are accurate or not.  Or maybe we will never know, since Kessel will likely be very successful in Pittsburgh.

Apparently, Steve Simmons has had an axe to grind for a long time.

The Pension Plan Puppets called it Kessel Derangement Disorder:

On the flip side, there are people like Steve Simmons who use that same tic to be insufferable boors. There is no problem that the Maple Leafs face that cannot be tracked back to Phil Kessel. Dave Nonis builds a lottery-level team? Phil Kessel’s fault for not overcoming shortcomings by himself. Randy Carlyle can’t coach his way out of a paper bag? It’s Phil Kessel’s fault for being uncoachable. But the latest salvo in his deranged pursuit of laying all of the blame for the Leafs’ woes at Kessel’s feet is probably the most insane.

Stay classy, Steve.  Maybe you should try one of those hot dogs.

Image courtesy of clyde.