Kessel survived tough times to give Bruins breakout season

There was a time many NHL scouts used the same sentence to describe Phil Kessel and Sidney Crosby.

That was back in the 2004-05 season when Crosby, touted as "The Next One," was all the rage, dominating junior hockey in Canada.

Phil Kessel (left) and Marc Savard have teamed up with Milan Lucic to give Boston a big-time line. (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Kessel, now the NHL's hottest scorer for the Boston Bruins, was putting up 52 goals and 98 points in 45 games for U.S. National Team Development program, phenomenal numbers that had scouts drooling even before the Madison, Wis., native showed them his wow factor in person at the World Junior Championship that season.

Kessel was the youngest member of Team USA and his highlight-reel performance at the Worlds sparked debate about who would be a better No. 1 overall draft pick, although it was an academic argument because Kessel's 18th birthday was one month late for Crosby's draft year in 2005.

But the comparisons stopped after Kessel followed up with a sluggish season at the University of Minnesota and international tournaments. By the time he was eligible in 2006, there were even some questions about his game and his intensity, enough to drop his stock and give the Bruins a shot at him with the fifth overall pick.

"It's just a number," Kessel insists now, even if his GM says he was "really disappointed" at not going first overall.

"I'm not really sure why that happened because I didn't think I was playing badly, but it doesn't really matter now," Kessel said. "The important thing is to keep doing the things that got you here."

In Kessel's case, that means providing Boston with the kind of offense his hands and electrifying wheels are capable of. The 21-year old didn't do much of that during his first two seasons with the Bruins, but now on a line that includes a premier set-up man in center Marc Savard and an excellent space-creater in left wing Milan Lucic, Kessel is exploding.

The Boston right wing's 17 goals are the NHL's third-best total, and he has scored in the last six games and in nine of his last 10. All but one of those games ended in victory for the surprising Bruins, who hold a comfortable lead in the Eastern Conference standings and are starting to pull away in the Northeast Division.

"From the goals point of view it's a breakout season, but really this is a natural progression because he's always been a tremendous talent at every level he's played," Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli said. "It's not a surprise he's doing this, but it may be a surprise to some people that he didn't reach this stage more quickly."

There were a few roadblocks, the most notable coming in early December 2006 during his rookie season, when Kessel found out he had testicular cancer.

"You have to try to forget, but you think back," Kessel said as the two-year anniversary of his diagnosis approached. "Obviously it's the worst day of your life, but you gotta move on and realize you're healthy now."

Kessel had surgery a few days after getting the news, and within a month he was back in the Bruins lineup. However his problems adapting to then-coach Dave Lewis' system remained, and Kessel saw limited ice for most of that season.