Kessel takes one shift to maintain ironman streak, heads home for birth of his child
It was a pretty unorthodox scene in Detroit, when Arizona Coyotes forward Phil Kessel took his first shift and skated by the bench for a series of fist bumps from his teammates and left the game.
No, he wasn't injured. No he wasn't sick. So why the strange departure? Well, the 34-year-old had two places to be at once. Kessel first had to make an appearance in Detroit to be credited with a shift in the game to preserve his 901-game ironman streak. His next stop was the airport to hop on a plane to Phoenix.
Per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, the Arizona Coyotes had set up a private charter flight for Kessel to fly back home for the birth of his first child.
I have a few thoughts on this. The first one, obviously, is how incredibly cool this is for the former Leaf. Congrats to Phil and his family. The second is how cool is Kessel's wife, seriously?! Third, since when can the Coyotes afford to just charter random flights to ensure that a player doesn't snap an ironman streak?
Jokes aside, this was just a really cool story. All the best to Phil the Thrill, and he'll be extra pleased to see that his team is blowing the doors off of the Detroit Red Wings. At the time of this article, it's 6-1 in the second period for the Yotes.
| POLL | ||
MARS 8 | 144 ANSWERS Kessel takes one shift to maintain ironman streak, heads home for birth of his child Will Kessel finish the season in Arizona? | ||
| Yes | 42 | 29.2 % |
| No | 64 | 44.4 % |
| Don't care | 38 | 26.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
