Kessel is the new Mr. October, but we’ll need him to be Mr. April and May, as well…

A few post-game observations before my full post, as the Leafs come from behind to win another, this time against the Jets:


-Readers will know I've written in the past about the (now former) Thrashers because of their impressive group of young players. Burmistrov, Byfuglien, Bogosian, Little, Kane, Enstrom, Ladd- these guys can play.


-Quick aside, does Byfuglien remind any older Leaf fans of a young Al Iafrate?


-That Wellwood and Antropov ended up on the scoresheet for the Jets will make some Leaf fans feel good, others not so much.


-As for the Leafs, well, Reimer did it again.  A huge save when it was 3-1 Winnipeg was a game-changer. (He has a knack for not letting the other team get that "next one".) Then, a fortunate re-direct on the power-play gave the Leafs some jump and Steckel (surprise) wins a face-off and Liles and Phaneuf set up Kessel for yet another to send the game into overtime.


-Great observation by Ray Ferraro during the shoot-out, that Frattin was checking out the video when Lupul netted one high over Pavelec's left shoulder.  Frattin went same side, off the post and in.  The young man is obviously a quick learner.


-Lupul, for his part, looked so relaxed when he skated in on the shoot-out opportunity that you knew he'd been there before.


-Last year at this time (in fact, dating back to the end of his first season in Toronto) I opined that Kessel would break out against the Bruins, his former team.  Didn't quite happen last season, either, but could this be the year? We may start finding out Thursday night.


-And maybe just to prove what can change in 24 hours:  Jake Gardiner went from 7th (press box) to 4th on the Leaf blue line depth chart by the end of the night...Despite my protestations, he may be staying, now, eh?

**

As I posted a few days ago, it’s hard not to fall in love with Phil Kessel when he is a dominant offensive player (and better all-around, but let’s see if that continues…) the way he has been during the five game home-stand to start the NHL season in Toronto.

He has become our “Mr. October”, if you will.

Now, you don’t have to be a huge baseball fan to understand the initial meaning of that phrase.  It related of course to the one and only, home run hitter extraordinaire Reggie Jackson.  Without going into too much detail, Jackson was the ultra-talented (a fine all-around player in his early days—speed, good arm, power) outfielder who started his career in Oakland and played briefly with Baltimore before finding his fame and fortune with George Steinbrenner’s New York Yankees.

Jackson ultimately became a hero, helping the Yankees get to the playoffs a few times and actually win the World Series in 1977, I think it was.  The Yankees beat the Dodgers in 6 games for the title, and in that famous last game, Reggie hammered three home runs and forever earned the nickname “Mr. October”, because that’s when baseball games mean the most.  (They also named a candy bar after him, though that didn’t last…)

The point of this story takes us one step further.  Reggie’s indirect replacement as the newest (and highest-paid, for the time) superstar with the Yanks in the early 1980s was former San Diego Padres Dave Winfield, a wonderfully-talented player in his own right.  (Blue Jay fans will remember him for his exploits in helping the Jays get to and win the World series in 1992.)

But way before that, Winfield put up some big numbers with the Yankees in New York.  The problem is, the Yankees, as I recall, never won a World Series in the Winfield years, and I believe they only made it to the playoffs (including the World Series) once in Dave’s 10 or so years in the Bronx.

Winfield had some great years with New York, but in his one and only opportunity for true New York glory in the ’81 World Series, he managed only 1 hit in 27 plate appearances, after batting about .150 in the playoff series leading up to the World Series.  This (nearly) forever earned him the wrath of the tempestuous owner, Steinbrenner.  The controversial and quotable Yankee boss ingloriously referred to Winfield as “Mr. May”, the allegation being that Winfield was great during the early part of the baseball season when the pressure was off, but far less effective when the proverbial chips were down.

If I’m not mistaken, Steinbrenner retracted his unfortunate comments many years later, but the monikor stuck with Winfield for quite a while—unfairly so.

So fast forward to the present moment.  Kessel, who more and more looks like an artist on ice these days, but one with a pinch of grit, is on a pace (there’s that awful phrase again) to do some real damage to the NHL stats column this season.  He is flying, scoring, setting up teammates—clearly the most dangerous guy on the ice every night, and not just for the blue and white. (Interestingly, we are still waiting to see what he might do with an elite centre in Toronto.  Can it be Bozak? Connolly when he returns? Or is it enough that Lupul has been a bookend winger that seems to have strong chemistry with Kessel?)

And here’s where the Winfield (a Hall-of-Famer, as many of you well know) story kind of weaves its way into the Kessel mix.  Kessel has been playing the first five years of his still young NHL career with the hockey equivalent of the somewhat lowly 1970s San Diego Padres.  Oh, he got into some playoff games with the Bruins when he was first in the league as a kid with Boston (9 goals in 15 playoff games; small sample size but pretty good, eh?).  However, his years in Toronto have maybe kind of dulled our senses.

We see the speed, the shot, the singular talent.  But every year he has hit the skids, in terms of production, somewhere along the way.  As I’ve often argued here, it’s not always that his effort or overall play falls off, but for whatever reason, the puck just doesn’t go in for extended periods of time.

So this year, we will be waiting to see if he can be a little more consistent in terms of the distribution of his goal production.  No one is expecting him to score 50 or more goals, though when he plays like this, he sure looks like he could name his number.

But right now, he is indeed “Mr. October”.  And that’s fine.  When a team hasn’t even made the playoffs in eight years and hasn’t been to the finals in 45 years, somebody better be good in the fall.

What we will ready need, though, is for him to be “Mr. May”, which would be a very important title to have in the hockey world, unlike baseball.  May is when the checking is that much tighter, when you play only the best teams and all the elite, first-string goalies.  When sheer will often overtakes pure, even elite, talent—because it’s the playoffs.

“Mr. October” is great.  We’ll just have to wait awhile to see if that other acknowledgment will ever be merited.