Daily Faceoff Live: Appreciating Phil Kessel’s iron man streak
Vegas Golden Knights winger Phil Kessel is poised to tie the NHL’s ironman streak record on Monday as he’ll match Keith Yandle’s 989 games.
What makes it even more special is that it comes against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team he started that iron man streak with back in 2009, and spent six seasons of his 17 season career with.
However, not as many people are talking about this like they did with Yandle’s streak last year, so Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna wondered on Daily Faceoff Live if this was fatigue from talking about it last year, or if it was because people always seem to sleep on Kessel.
Mike McKenna: “It’s iron man fatigue.”
Frank Seravalli: “How is that possible?”
Mike McKenna: “Well, because Yandle just grabbed it. We spent all this time building up Yandle, and then it’s anti-climactic when less than a calendar year later, here comes somebody else along to pick it up. We should have been celebrating Phil Kessel as much as we have been Keith Yandle. This is unbelievable. The things that Kessel’s played through to get to this point, and that’s just sheer will.
I had my share of bumps and bruises, I played with pulled groins, I played with a lot of injuries because first off I wasn’t very good, and I knew I was going to lose the net, so I had real motivation because I needed to keep getting contracts. Phil Kessel was going to keep getting contracts, he just wanted to be in the lineup, like he wouldn’t leave the lineup.
I think it’s a testament to him, but it’s a great point, why are we not speaking about this more, because this is a record that I can’t see ever being broken. I really can’t. In today’s day and age, kids miss games for a hangnail or precautionary reasons, and I think this is one that’s going to go down in the record books forever.”
Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, and check out some of these stats that the Vegas Golden Knights threw out there as well. It just gives you some perspective on to what Phil Kessel’s looking at. He’s played 988 consecutive NHL games, his next closest teammate William Karlsson is at 65.
When you think back to Phil Kessel last year in Arizona, skating one shift and then hopping on a private jet to go be there for the birth of his child, to me while it was cheesy in the way that he kept his streak going, it’s a reminder of all the different things that can pop up that could derail a streak, it’s not just injury. Yes you need some luck with that, you need to have that warrior mentality, but it’s also illness, it’s COVID-19, it’s family-related stuff that’s going on.
All those different things factor into it and I think if he exceeds a thousand games, he’s pretty close that he’s going to, I don’t think that record’s ever going to be broken. The next closest guy in the NHL is only in the 500s. No one’s even close, and those guys, it’s nice to even have a 1,000 game career, let alone to play 1,000 games consecutively.”
Mike McKenna: “No kidding. And think about it, he still chucked 44 assists on the board last year for a really weak Arizona team. He’s become more of a playmaker than a pure scorer like he was young in his career, but he’s still performing, and I think that’s going to be the challenge for Bruce Cassidy, to see what he can get out of Kessel in the right role this year. But especially through COVID-19, is Kessel just immune to everything? We should have all been taking care of ourselves the way he was, the way he made it through that without missing a game.”
Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, guy’s been an absolute animal, and what a stat by the Golden Knights. Because Karlsson is only at 65 games in his consecutive streak, he’d have to keep going until 2034 and not miss a game, and also hope that sometime in between now and whenever Kessel’s done playing, that he misses a game to break the streak. It’s bananas, it’s mind-blowing how many consecutive games Phil Kessel has played.”
You can watch the full episode here…