hockeyknowitall:

Pretty sure this started in Toronto which is kind of funny. Basically Phil Kessel was on the Toronto Maple Leafs during some pretty bad years. And since Phil Kessel ws their perennial all star a lot of the blame fell on him. He was their talent and their top scorer but the team wasn’t winning so of course, it was their only good players fault. The media speifically attacked him at every angle they could. He was anti-social, he was rude, he was lazy and fat, he was a “coach-killer” ect. ect. Basically everything bad with the Leafs was ultimately Phil Kessel’s fault in the eyes of the media. It was getting so bad, the mild manner Kessel had a few blow ups at the media towards the end of his time in Toronto. 

There were some issues with Phil, you know the old white guy types who know what they’re talking about but they’re all fucking idiots. And people were throwing Leafs jerseys onto the ice after particularly bad and frustrating losses…and there were a lot of those. 

But through all of this most fans and Phil’s teammates stayed loyal to him. Phil loved/loves toronto, considers it home. When he won the stanley cup he brought it back here for his cup day. So there was a lot of love and loyalty still ther e when he was traded to the Penguins during the Leafs rebuild and Leafs fans wanted the pens to win just because of Phil.

So when Phil won the stanley cup and played a huge part in the Penguins success, Maple Leafs fans felt like it was a big fuck you to the media that was so detached from the actual climate of leafs fans. The guy who was the reason for the leafs failure was put on a good team and helped contribute towards that teams success. It was proof it wasn’t Phil’s fault the Leafs were bad. Which is obvious to anyone with common sense but the media does not have that capability.

Throwback to win Jonathan Toews in the midst of all this controversy drafted Phil Kessel first over all in the fantasy draft during the All Star Game and said it was because Kessel was “such a coachable player.” LIke that’s how stupid the media was through all of this. Even players who had nothing to do with them or the team they were covering, were making fun of them.

I’ve seen a lot of people say “Phil Kessel is a stanley cup champion” is a fuck you to the city of Toronto. but it’s not. He was loved here. it’s a fuck you to the media tire fire they have surrounding the Maple Leafs.