"Ryan Kesler has a hard time accepting the free passes people want to give him.

No player from the Vancouver Canucks' core group gets less criticism when he's inert than Kesler, who's rarely scorched in print or on airwaves the way goaltender Roberto Luongo is and forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin are. Or any of the other Canucks whose helmets must be made of tin for amount of lightning strikes they attract from critics.

The good reason for this, of course, is that Kesler plays with such overt drive and heart and other noble attributes we'd call "Canadian" if he weren't American, that if his bottom line is disappointing there's surely a reason for it.

When he went pointless in the final six games of the Stanley Cup final loss to the Boston Bruins last season, Kesler must have been playing hurt. Which he was."