The worst of Phil Kessel
You can't really have a conversation about the top five forwards in the NHL right now and not include Phil Kessel. The Toronto Maple Leafs winger is having himself quite a season, currently sitting in third in scoring with 74 points and on his way to his first 40-goal campaign. There's not much in the way of negatives to Kessel's game these days.
Sure, there's some pouting, uninformed beat writers who can't deal with the soft-spoken sniper's penchant for skipping out on post-game scrums, but he's an offensive beast between the buzzers. Even the most acidic of anti-Leafs types have to admit that Kessel is a great player. Although the days of unfairly poking fun at Kessel's ability as a hockey player are pretty much over, he's still ripe for some unintentional comedy. From colliding with teammates to going last in a gimmicky fantasy draft to Wednesday night's water bottle malfunction, here is the worst of Phil Kessel.
Kessel gets drilled in his Maple Leafs debut
Kessel missed the first month of the 2009-10 season while recovering from shoulder surgery. He made his Maple Leafs debut on November 3rd, and made his presence known immediately by firing 10 shots on the Tampa Bay Lightning goal. If there was some rust on Kessel's game from his late start to the season, Mattias Ohlund knocked it off with this big hit.
The last pick of the 2011 All-Star Game draft
The 2011 NHL All-Star Game introduced a new 'fantasy draft' format for selecting teams. Kessel wound up being the final player selected, which put him a position to be relentlessly mocked by his peers (looking at you, Ovechkin) and his detractors. It's a good bet that Kessel won't be picked last in any future All-Star Game drafts.
Kessel is afraid... of something
Nothing like a good quick graphics interchange format image that takes something entirely out of context.
Dion Phaneuf says keep yer head up
Nobody is safe on the ice when Dion Phaneuf is out there. Kessel takes some body from the Maple Leafs captain while taking his time getting off the ice on a change.
Slash-happy Kessel
Kessel earned himself a three game suspension during the 2013-14 pre-season for his stick work on a giant statue named John Scott. As the following video demonstrates, Kessel worked on his slashing game this past summer.
Kessel "fights" Alexandre Burrows
You could make a very long list of things Kessel does well, but fighting would not be one of them.
The water bottle malfunction
Here it is, in all its glory...