Music: {allcanada} DECEPTIVE KESSEL DOMINATES FOR LEAFS

Monday, February 3, 2014

{allcanada} DECEPTIVE KESSEL DOMINATES FOR LEAFS

Consider The Globe and Mail’s profile of the secrets to Phil Kessel’s success from Monday a must-read.

Joffrey Lupul on how Kessel uses one of the most flexible and unique composite sticks in the NHL: “It’s very hard to handle the puck. It takes talent. He’s been using that stick for a long time and, obviously, he just has more talent than the rest of us. He’s able to deal with it.

“When I take a similar shot, I have to exert a lot more pressure on the stick to push down and get that reaction out of the stick. That’s what it’s made for – for the kick point to be right there. The way it’s set up it sometimes looks like he barely has to push and it helps him with a quicker release.”

Lupul, on how you should never underestimate his teammate: “Any sport you want to play him in, he’ll beat you at. That’s just natural fast-twitch muscles. It’s the same thing if you go play golf with him. … You wouldn’t picture him driving the ball 50, 60 yards past you, but it happens.

“Some people are naturally powerful, and in his case, that’s what gives him that extra gear.”

A Time to Kill - John Grisham