Sestito’s sister picks fi ght with Olbermann
ESPN broadcaster hits too close to home by calling teenager’s brother a ‘ boxing hobo on skates’ after one- second outing in L. A.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — A big part of Tom Sestito’s job with the Vancouver Canucks is having the backs of his teammates.
But who watches out for Sestito? Well, that would be his 13- year- old sister Victoria.
She got into it on Twitter Tuesday night with ESPN’s Keith Olbermann, who made Tom the winner of his Worst Person in the Sports World segment following his one- second, 27- penalty- minute performance on Monday against the Kings in Los Angeles.
“I’d describe him as a hockey player except he’s not,” Olbermann said of Sestito. “Last night he played his 101st NHL game.
“He has nine career goals, four career assists in those 101 games, so to break Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goals record he’d need about 10,000 games. About 123 seasons. But in those 101 games he now has 342 career minutes in penalties. How do you do that? You play one second and get 27 minutes.
“That is what Sestito did ( Monday night) against the L. A. Kings.”
Olbermann went on to call Sestito a “six- foot, five- inch boxing hobo on skates.”
Victoria was not amused and fired off this tweet to Olbermann: “The Sestito household enjoys your arrogant left- wing blurbs and we are looking forward to your next- firing :)
In his report Olbermann noted that Sestito earned $ 7,268 for his one second of work on Monday.
“That’s probably a little bit more than your liberal left- wing ass makes,” Victoria tweeted to Olbermann, who replied, “Nope, it isn’t.”
Olbermann was criticized by some for engaging with Victoria on Twitter.
“No clue who she was,” he tweeted. “If she wants to hide behind her age she shouldn’t have been rude to me.”
Tom Sestito, meanwhile, clearly didn’t mind getting the honour from Olbermann.
“Thanks for the recognition, bud,” he tweeted to Olbermann. “Maybe send a tweet my way to get me some followers.”
Before Wednesday’s game Sestito said he wasn’t surprised by his sister’s actions.
“She’s a feisty one,” Sestito said. “I was laughing away at it. I thought it was pretty funny.”
As for Olbermann calling him a boxing hobo on skates?
“What am I going to do. Everyone has their opinion. That guy doesn’t really know much about hockey, does he?”
NOT READY: Don’t look for Zack Kassian playing alongside Daniel and Henrik Sedin any time soon.
“No, he’s going to go through the process,” Tortorella told the Team 1040 in an interview before Wednesday’s game against the Ducks.
“( That idea) is frustrating to me because I think we’re going the right way with Zack. He’s beginning to get it. He’s on the cusp of understanding what it is to be a pro; he still doesn’t get that yet.
“I did say when I first came here that I’d like to try to give him a chance ( with the Sedins). But as I’ve got to know him and seen some of the things he needs to learn, I think he’s going along the right way here.”
Tortorella said Kassian still needs to work on his consistency and defensive play.
“People have to understand that when you’re playing on a top line, I’m usually playing my top line against the other team’s top line. There is a defensive part of it, too, and he still does not get that — as far as playing away from the puck. These games are so close, you have to be really careful there.
“He’ll get some time there eventually, but people think that because he’s a high pick and there’s a lot of things around him that he should be a top- line player. I don’t give a damn what the pick is, what he makes or what’s gone on.” BANG FOR THE BUCK: According to capgeek. com, the two best bargains in the NHL faced off against one another Wednesday at the Honda Center.
Canuck forward Mike Santorelli is listed as the NHL’s best bargain. Santorelli is making $ 550,000 this season, averaging 18: 40 of ice time and has 28 points. Capgeek assesses his “value” as $ 19,643. Value is defined as cap dollars per point/ assist/ goal/ minutes of ice time per game.
Second on the list is Anaheim centre Nick Bonino, who is making $ 700,000, averaging 16: 25 of ice time and has 33 points. His value is $ 21,212.