‘Pepe’ Lemieux smells sweet scent of a rat
Kesler’s game is to live off ‘mistakes,’ and he’s done a great job: Conn Smythe winner
It turns out there are people out there who have no problem cheering for Ryan Kesler — and it isn’t just fans, friends or family members, but rather a fellow rodent.
“I love the way he plays the game,” former NHLer Claude Lemieux told Postmedia News in a phone interview. “He leaves it all out there. He plays on the edge.”
A night earlier, Lemieux watched in admiration as the Anaheim Ducks centre Kesler poked, prodded and pestered the Nashville Predators’ Ryan Johansen during the Ducks’ 5-3 win over Nashville in Sunday’s Game 2 of the Western Conference final.
But it was Johansen’s postgame comments, where he complained that Kesler crosses the line, that put a Cheshire cat-like smile on Lemieux’s face.
“I mean, he just blows my mind,” Johansen said of Kesler. “I don’t know what’s going through his head out there. I don’t know how you cheer for a guy like that. It just doesn’t make sense how he plays the game, so I’m just trying to go out there and play hockey and it sucks when you gotta pull a stick out of your groin every shift.”
More than 20 years ago, opponents used to say the same thing about Lemieux when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP with the New Jersey Devils in 1995. When they complained, Lemieux didn’t tone down his game. Rather, it was a sign to ramp it up.
“If that was me, I’d be thinking I’ve got him right where I want him,” the former player-turnedagent said of Kesler.
Lemieux should know. During his career, he was considered dirtier than dirt. He didn’t just cross the line, he erased it. Lemieux once rammed Detroit Red Wings centre Kris Draper face-first into the boards, shattering his jaw. He was both feared and respected.
But it wasn’t the slashes, hooks or cheap shots that did the most damage. Like Kesler, he preyed on an opponent’s mind.
“You would try to throw them off the game,” Lemieux said. “You lived off their mistakes.”
That is what Kesler has been trying to do with Johansen this series. And we say trying because it’s debatable how effective Kesler’s antics have been so far. Despite the late hits and constant slashes, Johansen still had a goal and an assist in Game 2 and he leads all players in the series with four points in two games.
As Predators head coach Peter Laviolette said of Johansen, “He’s played terrific. I think Ryan’s been completely composed.” Well, for now that is. We’re only two games in and as Kesler showed in the second round when he was matched up against Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, this is about setting the table for later in the series.
As you will remember, the Oilers won the first two games of their series against the Ducks, with McDavid scoring three goals and five points in the first five games. But eventually Kesler’s constant needling started to wear on McDavid, who went the final two games without a point and was held to just one shot on goal in Game 7.
It’s death by a thousand paper cuts — or, in this case, pokes to the groin.
We saw a bit of that in Game 2, where Johansen was far more effective in the opening 10 minutes than he was for the final 50. In the second period, Kesler assisted on a tying goal where Johansen lost his man in the defensive zone. In the third period, with the Predators trailing by a goal, he was frustrated to the point where he took a highsticking penalty on Kesler.
Laviolette called the high-stick “accidental more than anything,” the result of a faceoff battle gone wrong. But Johansen’s post-game comments hinted at it being more than that. This is the first playoff series Johansen has had to deal with a shadow as relentless as Kesler.
“He’s a skilled player and I play the game hard,” Kesler told Sportsnet’s Christine Simpson. “Obviously he doesn’t like that.”
Kesler has made a career of not being liked. He thrives on it. But with eight points in 13 games, he’s not your one-dimensional rat. Kesler can hurt you just as much on the scoreboard as he can with his stick. While playing for the Vancouver Canucks, he scored 41 goals and won the Selke Trophy in 2010-11 as the league’s best defensive player. He’s a finalist again this year after tallying 22 goals and 58 points.
“He plays the game and is used in a role that I was used in,” Lemieux said. “I was the same player in my career. He’s doing a great job at it.”
Spoken like a true pest.
If that was me, I’d be thinking I’ve got him right where I want him. … He plays the game and is used in a role that I was used in.