BOSTON -- Bruins coach Claude Julien congratulated his players on how well they handled "Kesselmania" the past five days.
Julien had a legitimate fear that the former 36-goal sniper would come back with a blue and white vengeance and make clam chowder out of his defence in two games at TD Garden. But Kessel had another blank line beside his name last night, save for two shots.
That's just four in the two Boston wins, and a minus-3 from the 7-2 loss on Saturday. That bookends four games without a goal for Kessel, his longest slump as a Leaf.
Kessel, jeered by the 17,565 fans who believe the stories that he wanted a trade, hardly looked up when a Boston reporter asked for a comment as Kessel walked dejectedly to the team bus.
"We did a good job (covering him)," Julien said. "We know he's a pure scorer and if you give him room, he'll score. We reacted well."
