Kovacevic: Did Kessel really need Tocchet?

Nov 6, 2017 • 12:00 am

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Rick Tocchet makes his return to Pittsburgh tomorrow, when his Coyotes face the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena, and he’ll no doubt make the rounds in visiting his many friends here.

He’s a good man, a good coach, and it’ll be terrific on a broad scale for people to see him again, including on the video tribute that’ll be shown on big board during the first period. He’s genuinely loved and missed.

But now that I’ve offered that much, it’s also now fair, I feel, to point out that Phil Kessel’s fared just fine without him.

Remember all that fuss over the summer when Tocchet took the head coaching job with Arizona?

How Kessel was going to fall apart without him?

How Mike Sullivan would never be able to handle one of the game’s most mercurial players?

How Mark Recchi would represent a downgrade on the bench on this count alone?

Well, forget it.

I’m not going to say those above worries weren’t legit at the time. Sullivan and Kessel most definitely have had tough times with each other. And Tocchet most definitely was assigned the role of Kessel Cop on the staff. But the notion that Sullivan alone couldn’t handle Kessel would also have needed to be supported by the notion that Sullivan couldn’t handle ... you know, anything.

So never mind that Kessel currently has 4 goals and 12 assists for a team-leading 16 points. That’s par for the course. He’s one of six active players to have popped 20-plus goals the past nine seasons, so isn't it safe to assume he’d perform at that pace under anyone?

But how about leading the Penguins with 68 shots on goal?

All last season and even into the Stanley Cup playoffs, Sullivan had been publicly pleading with Kessel to shoot more. Now, he’s doing that as the default, effectively resurrecting his most dangerous self.

Maybe the message resonated better minus the middleman.

Much of last season and even occasionally in the playoffs, Kessel would look lethargic. He was driving people nuts, inside and outside the organization. Now, he’s in what Sullivan recently described as “the best shape Phil’s been in since he came to the Penguins.”

Not coincidentally, that assessment was shared on the night Kessel spectacularly pulled away from Patrik Laine, Winnipeg’s wonderful 20-year-old sniper, to score this breakaway beauty in overtime:

Poor Laine was still being bugged by questions about that sequence when we got to Manitoba a week later.

Still, nothing impressed me about Kessel’s opening month more than his overall showing Saturday night in Vancouver, where he was head-and-shoulders the visitors’ best player.

In addition to his pivotal role in this opening goal ...

... he also wrenched his leg a bit, as you can see up there, in dropping to one knee to make the pass to Jake Guentzel. His teammates skated his way to help him up, but he didn’t skip a shift.

In the second period, he was slew-footed by the Canucks’ Alexander Burmistrov, causing his head to slam back onto the ice helmet-first:

He needed help after that, too — pictured in the main photo above — as well as mandatory clearance through the NHL’s concussion protocol. That ate up five-plus minutes of his game.

Still, when the third period opened, Kessel was not only back on the rink but also bumped up to the top line by Sullivan, hoping to overcome a one-goal deficit. And for the rest of regulation, he kept playing as he had all night.

I downplayed the Tocchet factor at the time of his departure, and this trip cemented that stance.

I spoke with Kessel extensively after the game, and while he was chatty, he wasn’t in a mood to wax all philosophic about Sullivan, Tocchet and that sort of thing. Which was completely understood and well within character. The guy hates drama, whether real or manufactured, and this subject isn’t one of his favorites.

But he did share this view of his showing to date when I asked: “I feel good. I mean, I’m tired. We’re all tired. This schedule’s been pretty crazy, right? But it’s felt good.”

Better than expected, right?

• A couple weeks back, when the Steelers beat the Bengals, David DeCastro told me this: "We're 3-0 in the division. I mean, we're sitting right up there at the top. That hasn't happened in my time here. It's a little different. If you think about it, that means we kind of have to take a different approach."

He didn't expand at the time, and I didn't ask him to. But maybe now, after Black Sunday for the rest of the AFC North -- the Ravens and Bengals both lost, and they're all under .500 now -- it makes some sense.

The Steelers need to get better, plain and simple.

They need to challenge themselves to become more efficient in the red zone, more diversified in the passing attack, more consistent in run defense, more whatever it takes to avoid a reprise of Detroit's passing attack and -- yeah, I'll say it -- more aware of the need for man coverage in preparation for the Patriots.

Look, that's where all this is heading, I'll readily admit now. The Chiefs lost Sunday, too. And sorry, but I can't take the Bills, Titans or anyone else in the conference seriously save for the Jaguars, and even there the flaws are just so glaring.

So there it is. That's the challenge. Take care of business each week. Take advantage of the weak schedule that's now even weaker with Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers and Deshaun Watson done for the year. But at the same time, focus on the process. Reach higher.

Start thinking as big as they should have been thinking all along: Super Bowl or bust.

• The Pirates' exercising of Andrew McCutchen's $14.5 million club option for 2018 wasn't news in the slightest, at least not in the surprising sense. If they hadn't done that, they might as well have boarded up PNC Park. The outright hostility of their fan base these days would have bubbled over into something probably never seen in these parts.

I reported as much, based on sources, in August.

I also reported back then that management's goal, at least as it's being discussed internally, is to give this core group one more chance in 2018. Now, that group's never been defined for me other than including McCutchen and Gerrit Cole, so that leaves me wondering about, say, Josh Harrison and maybe even one of the maddening corner outfielders. But the general impression at the time is the very same now: Keep the core, see what happens.

The catch is what would come next. Meaning if June rolls around, and it's clear the core isn't contending. Because precedent is beyond powerful that these guys would love nothing more than to kick the can down the road, point to the Astros and Cubs as having slashed payroll before winning it all, and try to get everyone on board.

This is the stuff of which four-year extensions are made.

WHAT'S BREWING?

• Today brings the first of Taylor Haase's Wilkes-Barre Watch work! Give her a read and a shout!

• Also this morning, we're debuting a new weekly feature within our Daily Fun Thing family: It's Buried Treasure, by one of our editors, Jerry Wolper, and it'll look back at a meaningful moment in Pittsburgh sports history. In this case, it's Dale Long's legendary home run streak for the Pirates half a century ago. Hope you enjoy! This is totally Jerry's thing!

• This weekend's Site Stuff was essentially a reader survey, one I hope you can visit. But it's also got word of our next big PNC Main Street Meetup this coming Saturday in Indianapolis.

• Home! Woo!

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