Phil Kessel, Bruins right wing
In late 2006, Kessel was diagnosed with testicular cancer and underwent surgery.
The native of Madison, Wis., was a rookie then, less than a year removed from his single season with the University of Minnesota Gophers.
He was out only 11 games and hasn’t missed any regular-season games since.
So Kessel is one of the NHL’s heartening stories, on several levels, including the fact his 21 goals heading into Saturday’s games were the third-highest total in the league, behind Buffalo’s Thomas Vanek (24) and Philadelphia’s Jeff Carter (22).
“My cancer’s fine,” Kessel said on a recent conference call. “Everything’s going good there. I have to get checkups every once in a while, every couple months. But there’s nothing. I’m healthy.”
Dissatisfied with Kessel’s defensive- zone work, Boston coach Claude Julien made him a healthy scratch for three of the Bruins’ games in the seven-game opening round playoff loss to Montreal, but that was a mere blip — and it also seemed to have gotten a message across.
“I don’t think it’s changed my game,” Kessel said. “But he instilled you have to play good two-way hockey to get more offensive chances. I think this year, myself and my line, a lot of other guys, basically our whole team is playing good two-way hockey, so it’s creating good chances on the offensive end for us from our defensive zone.”
Although often listed as a center, he mostly has been playing right wing this season, on a line with veteran Marc Savard in the middle and second-year pro Milan Lucic on the left side. He got the Bruins’ first goal of the season, getting Boston started in a 5-4 victory over the Avalanche in Denver on opening night, and had six in the Bruins’ first six games. He cooled off for a while, but after Saturday’s 4-2 win over Carolina in which he had an assist, he has 15 points in the Bruins’ previous 15 games and is riding a 17-game points streak.
The Savard line has been one of the major catalysts in the terrific start that has the Bruins atop of the Eastern Conference.
“Whenever you’re winning, it makes the game a lot better,” Kessel said. “When you come to the rink, you’re winning games, you have a lot of fun, you enjoy it even more.”
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
