'Meaningless' games matter to Kessel
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Forward Phil Kessel bristled when someone suggested the final few games of the Toronto Maple Leafs' lost season lacked meaning.
"They mean stuff -- they mean stuff to us," he said yesterday morning, replying to the offending questioner in a polite but stern tone.
A few hours later, in one of only a dozen games left on the Leafs' regular-season schedule, Kessel scored once in regulation and again in the shootout to help Toronto to its fifth win in six games, 2-1 over the New Jersey Devils.
Nikolai Kulemin and John Mitchell also scored shootout goals for the Leafs, while Jean-Sébastien Giguère made 24 saves in regulation and overtime.
Yann Danis made 24 saves for the Devils in place of Martin Brodeur, who was given the night off.
Danis made his second start of the month for the Devils, who rolled into Toronto the day after a 5-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Brodeur contributed 24 saves to the cause Wednesday night, helping New Jersey keep pace with the defending Stanley Cup champions in the Atlantic Division.
It was a rare night's work for Danis, who also happened to be in goal the night Giguère made his Leafs debut on Feb. 2, a 3-0 Toronto win. Brodeur, not surprisingly, is undefeated against the Leafs this season.
Danis surrendered the first goal of the game when he let a rebound from a Dion Phaneuf shot carom directly to Kessel with time winding down in the first period. Kessel put it in a wide-open net.
"We want to win every game we play," Kessel said earlier in the day. "They mean stuff to the other teams, too. Teams are fighting for playoff spots, so we're not going out there and saying, 'These games don't mean anything."'
It was Kessel's 27th goal of the season, leaving him nine adrift of the career-best 36 he scored with the Boston Bruins last year.
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