On an eerie Saturday night dominated by ghouls and goblins, certain patrons at the Air Canada Centre might consider the most heinously costumed villain of them all to be wearing No. 81 for the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.
Let’s be honest here: The irony of Phil Kessel’s first game back in Toronto falling on Halloween certainly hasn’t been lost on any of us, least of all Penguins GM Jim Rutherford, the man who engineered the blockbuster July 1 trade that brought the speedy winger to Pittsburgh.
As such, given the polarizing figure that is Kessel, there is certain to be a strong reaction to his presence on Saturday night, from the moment he steps on to the ice for warmup to his first shift of the game.