Phil Kessel of Toronto Maple Leafs looking to have a great next season –NHL Special
25-year-old Phil Kessel, an American professional ice hockey player, who celebrated his 25th birthday earlier this month on the 2nd October, would be looking forward to have a good next season in spite of all the pressure that is created
by all the fans and the media.
Last two years have been very important for the player and he has done a lot of hard work, struggled a lot to make his position but he needs to do a little bit more with a top team like Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League (NHL) to make his
position strong and build a good career.
But a lot of the right winger’s position is going to depend on the head coach of Maple Leafs, Randy Carlyle, who is going into his 10th season with the team and might try to be a little more defensive then usual and can ask his players to push
themself a little back also.
The defensive play needs a lot of energy and the stamina which could also affect the forward’s game and he may find it more difficult to score in that situation.
Former Winnipeg Jets, Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs player, Carlyle was head coach of Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of NHL for seven years from 2005-2006 to mid 2011-2012 season before he was fired and with
Ducks’ team he was famous for defensive style of play. But Ducks had got forwards like Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry who are two of the best in the game and it did not affect their scoring as they still managed to score more than 50 points every season.
Carlyle was made famous when he won the Stanley Cup with Anaheim Ducks in the second season, which followed the finals loss in the conference finals in the very first year. Pretty much was expected from him by Ducks’ fans then and it looked as if he was
going to take the team to another level but performances in next 4 seasons were disappointing. There were 2 first round losses in playoffs, 1 second round loss and one season they failed to make it to playoffs.
When Carlyle replaced Ron Wilson, the former coach of Anaheim based side in March, they were already struggling and he could not get much of the time to spend with his players and they failed to finish in top 8 to qualify for the playoffs but now it would
be interesting to see what would happen this season if NHL lockout ends and season is played.
The most important thing would be to see how he manages and uses player like Phil Kessel and what impact he makes on the team. It would be something like make or break for him.
Madison, Wisconsin native, Kessel would be looking to keep improving like he had his best season in 2011-2012 by scoring at an average of one point per game as he scored 37 goals and 45 assists for total of 82 points in 82 games.
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