Kesler to Johansen: Stick it
‘He’s not my friend ... he can say whatever he wants’
Ryan Kesler couldn’t help but laugh.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since Ryan Johansen called him out as a dirty player and questioned how Kesler’s friends and family could even cheer for him, the Anaheim Ducks agitator said he wouldn’t back down from pestering the Nashville Predators centre.
If anything, he is just getting started.
“I laughed. I got a lot of text messages from my friends and family saying they still cheered me on,” Kesler said when asked what his immediate reaction was upon hearing Johansen’s comments after Game 2. “He can say whatever he wants, though. I’m not going to change my game. I’m here for one reason and one reason only and that’s to win some games here — and to ultimately win the series.”
Johansen, who headed i nto Game 3 of the Western Conference final with 13 points in 12 games, isn’t the first player that Kesler has targeted in the playoffs. From Calgary’s Sean Monahan to Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, skilled players have had to battle through stick work, late hits and a constant stream of chirping from this year’s Selke Trophy finalist.
But this is the first time in these playoffs that someone has called Kesler out for crossing the line.
Not that it bothers Kesler. He said he would not change his game just because of what Johansen said. His job isn’t to make friends with the opposition. He wants Johansen to hate him. That means he is doing his job.
And while Kesler couldn’t care less about what Johansen had to say, hearing that he was upset with the extra attention was music to Kesler’s ears.
“He’s not my friend, he’s not going to be my friend and he can say whatever he wants,” said Kesler. “Obviously, it seems like he was a bit rattled so I’m just going to play my game like I always do.”
Johansen might seem rattled, but he still headed into Game 3 on Tuesday night with four points in the series. And unlike McDavid, the 6- foot- 3 and 218- pound forward has given back just as much as he has received. Kesler has tried to feed off that aggression.
“Obviously, he’s a big body, good vision and he can skate, so it’s a bit different than other guys I’ve faced,” said Kesler. “He likes to use his stick a little bit. I think he’s taken two ( stick) penalties on me already.
“I know he doesn’t like it now. I’m not going to let up just because he said so.”
According to Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle, it isn’t constant playing of country music or the endless stream of honky-tonk bars that makes Nashville a unique setting for playoff hockey.
It’s the chance to lay a pounding on the orange- and- blue car in front of Bridgestone Arena.
“You see these elderly women out there with a sledge hammer taking a pounding at a car that’s got a Ducks logo on it,” said Carlyle. “Those are the kinds of things you look to, that passion that’s been developed in their market.”
It’s something that the Predators began in the first round, with fans paying up to $20 to pound on a Blackhawks- painted car. In the second round, a Blues- themed car was destroyed. The money raised goes to a cancer charity. Both cars, now been crushed into a square, are on display in front of the arena.
Carlyle said t he promotion is befitting of a team that has a workmanlike approach.
“They’ve taken on that bluecollar attitude and the work ethic that they display and the style that they play has been maintained for a number of years. Always been competitive. Always hard to play against. Always been a team that has shown up and shown that there is an ability for a smaller market team to have success.” Hampus Lindholm, who missed significant time this season because of a contract dispute and injuries, might have had a down year offensive ly with just six goals and 20 points. But while his production shrunk, the 23- yearold grew in other areas.
“I think I’ ve gotten a little bigger ,” said the 6- foot -3 and 205- pound defenceman. “I found my size now.”
Lindholm will never be confused with Dion Phaneuf. But the newfound size means he’s harder to knock off the puck and, as Milan Lucic found out in the second round when Lindholm caught him with an open-ice hit, he is now the one initiating contact.
“You need guys to go out there and play a little harder,” said the sixth- overall pick in 2012 NHL Draft. “I’m not going to run someone over, but I can be harder to play against and make guys have to do something good if they’re going to get a scoring chance.”
As for the offence, Carlyle is confident it will come.
“We look at him as a guy that still has room to grow on the offensive side of it because he can shoot the puck,” said the Ducks head coach. “He’s shown the ability to score goals from the point.” P. K. Subban set up the overtime winner in Game 1 and had seven points in the first two rounds of the playoffs. But for someone who was labelled as an offensive defenceman during his time in Montreal, it’s been his attention to detail in the defensive zone that has really stood out since coming to Nashville.
And yet, don’t expect head coach Peter Laviolette to take any credit for Subban’s supposed transformation.
“We’re not talking about a project. It wasn’t a project,” Laviolette said of Subban. “He was a good defensive player when he got here. And in fact, his defence, for me, and the way that he played defensively, the way he can break out of an end, the way he can hold off a forecheck and use his skating ability, and his passing is elite passing ... He’s been a really good 200-foot, two-way player for us.”