Drive to the Net: Kessel heats up ☕ taken at PPG Paints Arena (Penguins)

Phil Kessel -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

"I've been cold. This year has been a cold year for me in the goal-scoring department."

That's how Phil Kessel described his recent goal-scoring drought, speaking after the Penguins' 4-1 win over the Red Wings at PPG Paints Arena on Friday.

As the Penguins are approaching the postseason for the 13th consecutive season, Kessel appears to finally be heating up.

The past two months have not been kind to Kessel. In the 29 games from Feb. 1 to March 31, he didn't score a single even strength goal, and scored just three on the power play. Kessel snapped the even strength drought on Tuesday in Detroit, scoring the lone goal in the Penguins' 4-1 loss.

Kessel built on that momentum to extend his goal-scoring streak to two in the first period of Friday's win. Sidney Crosby poked a rebound over to Kessel, who easily put it into the wide-open net to break a 1-1 tie:

The goal came during the Penguins' "Big Mac Attack" promotion, a promotion that runs during a two-minute period of every home game. If the Penguins get a goal before the two minutes is up, fans in attendance can redeem their ticket stub for a Big Mac at a Pittsburgh-area McDonalds. When it was announced that Kessel's first-period goal won everyone a Big Mac, fans broke out in a "Thank you Phil!" chant. Kessel was shown laughing on the videoboard at the chant. He's not just a hot dog guy. He's a man of the people.

Later in the second period, Kessel showed that last game wasn't a fluke with another even strength goal. Evgeni Malkin won the draw and sent the puck back to Kessel, who fired it past Jimmy Howard to extend the lead to 3-1:

Kessel attempted eight shots in the win, one behind Kris Letang and Patric Hornqvist for the team-lead. He had five shots on net, tied for the second-most.

Kessel's confidence had self-admittedly taken a dive during his two-month slump. But after these two games, it seems to be trending in the right direction.

"I was cold," said Kessel. "Whenever you're ice-cold like that, your confidence has to dip a little bit. But it was nice to get a couple, hopefully they keep going in."

Kessel was asked if the second goal did anything extra for his confidence, just given how impressive of a shot it was.

"I don't know. I missed some other ones that I probably shouldn't have missed," he said with a smile. "So I don't know how confident. But it's nice to see it go in."

Kessel didn't want to attribute the return of his goal-scoring ability to any sort of added pressure that comes with this time of year, and he didn't want to attribute it to any real conscious changes he made on the ice, either.

"I don't really change," he said. "I mean a couple went in, right?"

Right.

"He scores some big goals for us," Mike Sullivan said of Kessel. "Tonight was another night that he does it. He has that talent level, that capability. He's not unlike any other player, when players go through their struggles it affects their confidence level. These guys are all human. Phil is no different. I think he's played a lot better over this last stretch of games, I think his confidence has to be growing because he's had the puck on his stick a lot more, he's getting chances, and now they're starting to go in the net for him, which is a great sign."

Kessel's two goals, along with his primary assist on Crosby's third-period goal, bring Kessel's season total to 82 points as he enters game 82. While Kessel's season has been streaky and frustrating at times, this is still his second-most productive season since joining the Penguins in 2015.

If he can stay hot as the Penguins enter the postseason, everyone's memories of his struggles over the past two months may just get a little fuzzy.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY

Penguins vs. Red Wings, PPG Paints Arena, April 4, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Loading...
Loading...