As North Korean missiles sail over northern Japan, as hurricanes maul homes from Houston to San Juan, and as our own country tries to come to grips with political and cultural turmoil unlike any seen this century, I, for one, can find at least a fleeting escape in this natural hat trick of words so often spoken by one Philip Joseph Kessel Jr.:
"I know, right?"
That's Phil. Through the grin of the guy at the bar's edge who just heard it's happy hour, with a friendly squeeze of the shoulder or a playful tap of the tummy, he lets you know the world's really not all that miserable a place so long as you're seeing it through Phil's eyes.
He and I had our first good talk of the Penguins' training camp Wednesday morning at PPG Paints Arena, the first, actually, since June 11 in Nashville. And you'll be stunned to know he hasn't really changed a whole lot.
How's he feeling after the short summer?
"I'm here. We're all here. There wasn't much to it, but hey, what are you gonna do, right?"
Right!
How about his energy level?
"I'm good. I'm good. I'm really good."
He really is.
How about making history with a three-peat?
"Why not, you know? We've got some good players here."
They really do.
"And how are you doing? How you been?"
Awesome, my man. Because I'm near you.
There was a good bit more, and yet so much less in the same glorious context. Because that's Phil every bit as much as this beauty of a breakaway goal Wednesday night in beating Buffalo, 5-4:
That was Phil vs. Chad Johnson. It was no contest. Too much release, too much precision, not nearly enough goaltending equipment to negate it. And never mind kicking Evgeni Malkin's standstill feed from his left skate to his blade while maintaining full speed to split the Sabres' defense.
Not one human is deserving of being able to do all that and to casually cascade through life the way Phil does. Yeah, he gets a little ornery at times, and he makes way more people mad than just us evil media members. But even when that occurs, he's phenomenal at flipping the switch into a genuinely friendly mode. It's as if he's honestly, truly forgotten whatever made you mad, and thus, you should, too.
So you do, right?
Pittsburgh loves Phil, and this is why. He's real. He's no B.S. He looks like us, at least the daydreaming beer-leaguer in all of us. He kind of talks like us even though he's from Wisconsin and spent a chunk of his adulthood in Canada. And he's even got that oldest-of-old-school Pittsburgh qualities in that, however hard work might be, he's going to enjoy the hell out of whatever life holds after the clock's punched.
This is all I've got on the subject. Nothing any deeper than the line for fresh pastrami at Penn-Mac.
Oh, other than Matt Sunday's lens following Phil all night long:
Thank you to all the fans tonight at PNC Park. You guys def didnt have to do that but I am humbled by your kind gesture. It Meant a lot
— andrew mccutchen (@TheCUTCH22) September 28, 2017
#ThankYouTeke pic.twitter.com/qmtTYTpzw8
— Pirates (@Pirates) September 28, 2017
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