Kesler thriving in monster role; McDavid drawing penalties galore; Blues sunk by goaltending
Ryan Kesler has never played this much in his 16-year NHL career.
The Randy Carlyle-led Anaheim Ducks are leaning hard on the 32-year-old for a little bit of everything, and he’s delivering with his finest season in years. Kesler is averaging almost 22 minutes per-game, the most in his NHL life and the second-most among all forwards this season, trailing only reigning Hart trophy winner Patrick Kane by a few seconds.
The quality of those minutes impresses as much as the quantity.
Kesler is starting only 33 per cent of his shifts in the offensive zone, the slimmest among Duck forwards and one of the lowest such marks in the league. The Michigan product gets the toughest matchups for the Ducks each night; his most frequent opponents this year (per the Natural Stat Trick website) have been the Sharks’ top trio of Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Patrick Marleau, followed by heavy duty against Vancouver’s Sedin twins and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.