PITTSBURGH — Phil Kessel came to loathe playing his old Boston team in the years immediately following his trade to Toronto when the Bruins perfected their Cup roster.
In his first game against them in 2009-10, he didn’t register a point and was a minus-3 in a 7-2 Toronto loss, a sign of lean times to come. It took until the 2013 playoffs for him to get comfortable. While the Maple Leafs should not be as great a psychological barrier to the 500-point winger — and there’s no Zdeno Chara blanketing him here — Saturday’s first post-trade encounter didn’t go too well either.