P.K. SUBBAN AND PHIL KESSEL, KINDRED SPIRITS.

Both know adjusting to new environments

in Pittsburgh

Here’s a scene for you. It’s a year ago and Phil Kessel has just won the Stanley Cup and now it’s his turn to spend a day with the trophy.

So the Pittsburgh Penguins forward heads to Toronto of all places, because he’s got lots of friends there. But also because the Maple Leafs are the team that booted him out of the city months earlier in an addition-by-subtraction type of trade, and you just know Kessel probably just wanted to rub it in a little.

Kessel even goes so far as to invite former Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf and ex-Canadiens defenceman P.K Subban, who like Kessel, had recently been traded from places that had never really appreciated them.

It’s a who’s who of scorned rejects. And for one night, they are toasting the teams that gave up on them.

Of course, the real party has been happening in this year’s playoffs, where Phaneuf came within one win from reaching the Stanley Cup final with the Ottawa Senators, and Kessel and Subban are now playing against each other for the championship beginning Monday night in Pittsburgh.

“I was there at his Cup party. I dropped in late,” Subban, speaking during media day, said of Kessel’s day with the Cup. “I was actually in Florida with my power skating coach and I took a late flight back. Growing up in Toronto and living there in the off-season, I witnessed some of the stuff (Kessel) went through and hearing about it in the media. A lot of it isn’t deserved with how hard he’s worked in his career and how good he’s been.

“So I wanted to show him my support and I was really, really happy for him to do it. He deserved it last year for sure.”