Down Goes Brown's Weekend Review: Phil Kessel Headlines World Cup Snubs

(Editor's note: Sean McIndoe looks back at recent play in the NHL and the league's biggest storylines in his weekend review. You can follow him on Twitter.)

We're just hours away from the puck dropping on the Stanley Cup Final. We've made it through the long offseason, and the useless preseason, and the only slightly less useless regular season. We've made it past three rounds of the postseason, most of which were hard-fought and entertaining. We've run through all the storylines, made our predictions and clichéd our way through media day. Now it's time to settle this thing on the ice.

The matchup between the Penguins and Sharks (which we broke down in detail in yesterday's preview) is a good one. It doesn't bring much in the way of history, and after a few years of the league lucking into having at least one giant TV market in every final, this one may not draw the sort of numbers it deserves. But it will be fun. And if you're a neutral fan, one whose team is already long gone, that's all you can ask for.

I mean, if you can't get excited for a final that pits Joe Thornton against Phil Kessel, then I don't know what to tell you. Over the years, those two have become the poster boys for hockey's growing obsession with the "just can't win with him" narrative, constantly hammered for being the sort of player that wilts in the big moment no matter what the numbers actually say. Now they're both here, both playing great, and one of them is a few days away from a skate with the Stanley Cup. Will that be the moment that finally kills the narrative off? Of course not. But it will shut up it up, if only for a moment or two, and we'll all be thankful for it.

This is also a matchup between two captains who couldn't have taken more different paths to this moment. Sidney Crosby has been the chosen one since his early teens in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia—the kid who was tagged as the next Gretzky or Lemieux before he could get a driver's license. And for the most part he's lived up to it, establishing himself as the best player of a generation. But he'll be facing the playoffs' leading goal-scorer in Joe Pavelski, a seventh-round pick who was too small and couldn't skate.

It's a matchup between two goaltenders who'd never started a playoff game before this year. San Jose's Martin Jones is in his third NHL season, the first two spent as a little-used backup. And he's the experienced one in this series, facing a kid named Matt Murray who's trying to turn his Steve Penney story into a Ken Dryden one.

It's the blessed franchise that always seems to have the next big thing fall into its lap vs. the cursed one with the history of heartbreak. It's two coaches who've both been on the job for less than a year. It's Malkin vs Marleau, Letang vs. Burns, and Metallica vs. D-Generation X.

And maybe most importantly of all, it's a matchup between two teams that aren't afraid to show off a bit of speed and skill and personality and yes, even fun. It really is still possible to win that way in today's game, even in an era where scoring stagnates and everyone seems to want to look and play the same. We're constantly told that the NHL is a copycat league; with these two teams in the final, we should probably hope it's true.

It's going to be fun. If we're lucky, it will be fun for seven games. As a fan, that's just about all you can ask for.

Celebrating those who've had the best week.

5. World Cup rosters—Friday was the deadline for the eight World Cup teams to fill out their rosters for this September's tournament. And, of course, that means that hockey fans get to play our favorite game: Find The Snub. There were plenty to choose from.

Team USA didn't pick Phil Kessel or Kevin Shattenkirk. Team Sweden made some perplexing blueline choices, including leaving John Klingberg off the roster. Team North America (i.e. The Young Guns) didn't invite Alexander Galchenyuk. And as always, Team Canada left the most talent at home, as you'd expect given that it had the most to choose from. But some of those names are still surprises, including Corey Perry, Taylor Hall, Kris Letang and P.K. Subban.

Those last two are especially perplexing, since Team Canada found room for Jake Muzzin, a reasonably good defenseman who's certainly never been considered a Norris contender. But there's a reason for that, as we'll see in the next section.

4. Handedness—Which side did Bobby Orr play? Paul Coffey? Ray Bourque? There's a good chance you're not sure, or at least had to think about it for a minute. Because for a long time, hockey fans never worried about which side a defenseman played, or which hand he shot with. They were just defensemen, two on the ice at a time, and dividing them up any further seemed unnecessary.

But in recent years, the distinction between left-handed defensemen and right-handed defensemen has become almost as important as that between left and right wingers. And at some point, Team Canada decided that splitting the blueline between left and right shots was absolutely crucial. It's why it found a spot for Muzzin, who shoots left, but not Subban or Letang, who shoot right. Team Canada is not alone; any roster discussions around NHL teams these days always seems to touch on who shoots from where.

If you feel like a defenseman's handedness was something we went from never mentioning to obsessing over, well, you're not wrong. One study indicates that this has only really been a concern for NHL teams over the last few years. Many trace its rise to Mike Babcock, who makes it a point of emphasis for any roster he fills out, including in his gold medal-winning stints with Team Canada. Chalk it up as just one more evolution of the game.

Still, it seems odd to think that a balance between lefties and righties would be enough to make up for the gap in talent between Muzzin and Letang or Subban, especially since defensemen used to be expected to be able to switch sides as easily as centers switch over to the wing for these tournaments. Team Canada has smart people running the show, and if it wins gold, then none of this will matter. But if not, Muzzin will join the club with guys like Rob Zamuner and Lyle Odelein as odd picks on teams that didn't get it done.

3. Joe Thornton's beard—I'll be honest: the whole "look at the hockey player with the wacky beard" thing is typically one of the worst stories of the postseason. It was cool when a few guys did it, much less so when it became some sort of mandatory rite of passage.

And so it's somewhat grudgingly that we have to acknowledge that Thornton has now achieved a level of ridiculousness that you can only tip your cap to. I mean, just look at that thing. And then go read about it, including the fact that his wife apparently hates it.

If we're lucky, Thornton's may even be the one that finally kills off the whole playoff beard arms race once and for all.

2. San Jose, hockey town—Another dependable playoff storyline is the hockey world discovering a relatively new market. Whether it was Dallas in 1999, Carolina in 2006, Arizona in 2012 or Tampa last year, it's always fun to see the hockey world descend en masse on a market that typically doesn't get all that much attention, and realize it's better than they thought.

Granted, we usually respond by taking everything a little bit too far. Maybe we get caught up in the moment, or maybe it's some latent guilt, but suddenly we go overboard: Best arena ever! Loudest fans in the league! Hockey has finally arrived in [market where hockey arrived years ago]!

Still, it's about time that San Jose got some time in the national spotlight, and by all accounts some fans may be surprised by just how well the NHL game has been embraced there. We should hear some good stories, especially once the series shifts to California later in the week.

1. Trades!—Like an old friend at the bar who you barely recognize at first, a real life hockey trade stumbled its way back into fans' lives late last week. In the first move of any significance since the trade deadline, the Canucks sent prospect Jared McCann, a second-round pick and a fourth to the Panthers for defenseman Erik Gudbranson and a fifth.

The deal drew decidedly mixed reviews. The old school crowd called it a clear win for the Canucks; the analytics folks thought it was outright robbery for the Panthers. That's almost entirely due to the divisive views of Gudbranson, a rugged blueliner with a mean streak and decent skill, but whose numbers paint him as a second pairing guy at best. There's not a lot of faith out there in the Canucks' management team, and it's not hard to view this as the sort of win-now move that shouldn't be on the table for a team that's, well, not good enough to win now.

But even a bad trade is still a trade, and fans were even treated to another minor deal later that day. We're told that this offseason could be busier than usual, as a squeezing salary cap and future expansion play havoc with some teams' plans. They brought the appetizer out early; let's hope the main course is a good one.

A look at the week's underachievers.

5. The Kessel snub—Once hockey fans are done playing Find The Snub, they move on to the next game: Rationalize The Snub. There's usually an explanation somewhere, and we've already covered the logic behind Team Canada's weird blueline decision. But there's one absence that pretty much defies any attempt to figure it out: Team USA leaving Kessel off the roster.

It's not like Team USA is stacked at forward; remember, Justin Abdelkader made this team. And yet they couldn't find room for a guy who's been one of the NHL's top scorers over the last few years. Why? It can't be because they don't think he can produce in an international tournament, given that he was the leading scorer at the Sochi Olympics. And he's currently on fire, helping his team to a Stanley Cup final appearance and playing some of the best hockey of his life.

So what's the deal? Character, we're being told, and GM Dean Lombardi's desire to build a team that's packed with it. Let's put aside the idea that Lombardi may not be the guy you want judging character. Apparently Lombardi wants to model this team off of the country's 1996 World Cup winner, which remains the only American team to win a true best-on-best tournament. That team was very good, and a worthy model for future versions. But the core of that team went on to humiliate themselves in Nagano two years later, trashing hotel rooms after an early exit. That's the character you want to base your team around?

That's not say that Kessel is the ideal teammate. While you never really know what happens in a locker room, there have been enough whispers about Kessel's attitude to suspect that there's at least some truth to them. That can be a problem over a long season, where your teammates essentially become your second family, if not your first. But in a two-week tournament? This all feels like Lombardi and friends badly overthinking things.

Maybe it all works out. Maybe Team USA bonds together into something better than the sum of its parts without any Kessel types ruining the fun. Maybe it goes deeper than expected, or even wins it all. Or maybe it finds itself outmanned and under-skilled, holding tough in the late stages of a must-win game that its trailing by one, and wishing it could get a few shifts out of the sort of player who can single-handedly create offense. Those guys are hard to find. It gets even harder when you're chasing 20-year-old ghosts instead of the best roster available.

4. Slava Voynov—One last World Cup item, and it's one we haven't heard the last of. Team Russia named Voynov to the team, despite the fact that he remains suspended from the NHL after his 2014 arrest for domestic violence. He eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and spent time in jail. With his NHL career almost certainly over, he returned home to play in the KHL this season.

The Russians contend that this is an international tournament and that they should have final say on who they send, just like they did in choosing Voynov for last month's world championships. But the World Cup isn't an IIHF event; it's run jointly by the NHL and NHLPA, and the league had made it clear that Voynov wasn't likely to be welcomed. The NHL now says it's reviewing the matter, but the league's jurisdiction here seems clear, and by far the most likely outcome is that Voynov doesn't end up playing. The question may be how ugly this all gets before we arrive there.

3. Pittsburg, hockey town—No, that's not a typo. We're not talking about Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We mean Pittsburg, California, a small city not far north of San Jose that apparently borrowed the name a century ago to lure a steel plant to town. Enjoy a heaping helping of cognitive dissonance over the next few weeks, guys. (But seriously, please don't do the lame "temporary name change" thing.)

2. The schedule—It was just a few weeks ago that we were applauding the NHL for finally, mercifully getting a playoff schedule right. The conference finals featured just one day off, with the two series otherwise keeping to the perfect one-game-every-other-night pattern. Fans rejoiced.

Well, apparently that was just a setup to get us to let our guard down, because the schedule for the final is awful. Just look at this monstrosity. Ten days off in a seven-game series? Four different two-day breaks? Is this the NBA?

Sure, building availability can play a role, and travel days are always an issue, especially with a west coast team involved. And we can at least be thankful for small mercies, like the lack of afternoon games. But a series that looks poised to be a thrill ride is going to have a tough time keeping up any momentum, as the NHL drags it out with day off after day off.

1. The ratings—If you're the sort of fan (or NHL executive) who worries about TV ratings, these are not good days. The final matchup is merely OK, matching a medium-sized market with decent hockey history against a bigger one without much track record. And it's going to be a tough start. We've already talked up San Jose as a hockey town, and the NHL has been slowly but surely winning over California for years, but tonight's Game 1 is going to get slaughtered by Game 7 of the NBA's Western Conference final matchup between the Warriors and Thunder.

But the story gets worse. All Access, the NHL's latest attempt at an HBO 24/7 production, tanked badly. And the league is apparently so concerned over ratings that its willing to take a public relations beating by forcing teams to cancel viewing parties. Hey, nothing like infuriating some of your best fans just to squeeze out an extra point or two, right?

And sure, lots of fans don't care about this stuff, and there's a good case to be made that they shouldn't. You either like hockey or you don't, and if the sport is forever destined to be a niche, then so be it. That's probably a healthy perspective to take, especially when the numbers start to roll in over the next few days. Because they might be ugly.