Despite having what he himself called a cold season in the goal-scoring department, Pittsburgh Penguins winger Phil Kessel is on track to lead the league in an interesting offensive category this season.
Coming into Saturday night’s finale against the New York Rangers, 10 of Kessel’s 27 goals have been game winners. Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog and Boston’s Brad Marchand, with nine, are the only players who could catch him.
Under most circumstances, that stat could be chalked up to chance.
Scoring a team’s second goal in the first period of a 5-1 victory counts just the same as a tie-breaker late in the third. In general, players who score the most goals are going to score the most game winners by sheer probability.
But with Kessel, one wonders. So much of his reputation is built on scoring big goals in big spots that there might be something to it in this case.
Teammate Bryan Rust theorized Kessel has a great sense of timing.
“I think with him, he knows when big moments are there and your team needs something or your team needs a goal,” Rust said. “He obviously goes out there and gets it done a lot of the time. That’s just kudos to him.”
