Anaheim Ducks Ryan Kesler Opens Up at His Exit Interview

Saturday, the Anaheim Ducks held their exit interviews to finish off the season. While these types of events are usually pretty vanilla, a few interesting items came out of the day. Ryan Kesler’s final chat with the media this season was especially illuminating.

Individual

Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Kesler had a tough year coming back from the hip surgery he had last summer. He knows he wasn’t close to 100%, but in his own words, he felt “good enough to play.” After the surgery, Kesler said he had to “learn to skate again.”

"“Learning how to basically skate again and coming back behind the 8 ball when everybody is in midseason form and you’re in training camp mode was hard, but it’s not an excuse.” – Ryan KeslerMore from Pucks of a FeatherWho could the Anaheim Ducks consider presenting offer sheets to?Is Pierre-Luc Dubois on the cards for the rebuilding Anaheim Ducks?Making the case for the Anaheim Ducks to trade with the Edmonton OilersAnaheim Ducks might benefit tremendously by trading John GibsonHow close are the Anaheim Ducks to becoming contenders again?"

He’s the guy that the Anaheim Ducks count on to defend the other teams best center. RK17 had to start from square one and get himself ready to resume his role.

Also, almost a year removed from the procedure and subsequent grueling rehabilitation he said he feels better now than he did before surgery. Looking back to the 2016-17 playoff run, it’s unimaginable what kind of pain he must have been in.

During his comeback, he knew he wasn’t moving fast enough on the ice and took additional steps to pick up more speed. Kesler dropped 20 pounds. That’s about 10% of his previous weight. He is more effective as a shutdown center so the adjustment was necessary. For a guy that prides himself on hard hits, it must have been a bit of a sacrifice for him.

Team

As for his team’s performance in the playoffs, he came out and said that the Ducks weren’t good enough to compete with San Jose. Additionally, Kesler said the Ducks lacked discipline.

"“For whatever reason, we were taking penalties and they capitalized,” he said. “Our power play wasn’t good enough early on, and to be honest, we looked shorthanded when we were on the power play. But it got better as the series went on. Game 4, we should have won that game 1-0.“There are a lot of things that happen from game to game, but at the end of the day, top to bottom we weren’t good enough. I don’t think anybody in that room would say we were good enough.” – Ryan Kesler"

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Those are very interesting comments when they come from a player whose biggest critics often cite his lack of discipline.