After sitting, Kessel has really stepped up

Fans pounded their approval of a stick-up job by Phil Kessel - the first of his two goals in a thrilling win that tied the series. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff)

It was embarrassing. Phil Kessel was one of only three Bruins to play all 82 regular-season games. He potted 19 goals with 18 assists for 37 points. He lead the league with five deciding shootout goals. He even notched his first career hat trick.

Then the playoffs started and he was benched for Games 2, 3, and 4 against the Canadiens.

Kessel managed an assist in the 4-1 beatdown in Game 1, but it was pretty clear he disappointed his boss. Next thing he knew, he was watching the playoffs from the press box, dressed in civilian clothes with the other "scratches."

"Obviously, I was mad," the young center/wing admitted before last night's Game 6. "It was a tough situation."

Yikes. Kessel fesses up and says he was mad. That may not sound like much of a statement, but coming from Kessel, it's a Joe Biden filibuster. This young man works inside a cone of silence. It's easier getting Bartolo Colon to talk. Kessel is every teenage boy you've ever known - reluctant to pacify the grown-ups when they pester him at dinner with, "How was your day, son?"

When he does speak, he slips into cliché-riddled bits right out of the Bill Belichick media playbook. Here was Kessel before last night's potential season-ending game: "Obviously it's a big game, so we gotta go out there and play hard."

They did. And Kessel played as hard as anybody, scoring two goals in Boston's pulsating 5-4 victory.

"The last two games, he's been unbelievable," said coach Claude Julien. "If he wants to keep proving me wrong, I can take it."

The Kessel benching was one of the headlines of this Original Six first-round matchup. Julien was obviously not happy with the young man's play in the opener and the coach's message was hardly subtle.

The Bruins certainly played better without Kessel in Games 2, 3, and 4, but watching them try to score (five goals in the first four games) became unbearable. After the Game 4 shutout, Kessel went back into the lineup (on the second line, alongside Marc Savard and Milan Lucic) and scored Boston's first goal of Game 5. It wound up being the first of five unanswered goals by the Bruins.

"I think it's pretty obvious that we saw Phil Kessel determined to get back in the lineup and make a difference," Julien said Friday. "I think everybody who's seen him play this year would say that was one of his best games.

"He was strong on the boards, strong on the puck, all those things that we've working with him to get better at. He's shown us that he's capable of doing it. It couldn't happen at a better time. Was I pleased with his game? Absolutely. Do we need more of that? We certainly do."

Now Julien is looking like a master motivator. Kessel was a dominant force in Game 6.

A Wisconsin native and something of a puck prodigy, Kessel was drafted by the Bruins in 2006 and played 70 games while he was still a teenager during the 2006-07 season. Testicular cancer surgery sidelined him for a mere 11 games. Other than that, he was always in the lineup.

He was typically mum when asked how the bad news was handed down before Game 2 in Montreal.

"They told me in the afternoon sometime," he said. "Phone."

A phone call to his hotel room?

"Yes."

What about when you came back to Boston? When did they tell you you'd be benched for Games 3 and 4?

"You just know you're not playing," he said. "I just know. It was tough [watching from press box] It really is."

Does the game look easier from the ninth-floor halo of the New Garden?

"I don't know. It's just tough to watch."

Does he feel he did anything in practice to work his way back into the lineup?

"No. Same as always."

Does he think he should have played in Games 2, 3, and 4?

"In my mind, yeah, but that's their decision, so you've got to stick with it."

He scored on a spectacular rush in the second period, taking a pass from a prone Savard and undressing Francis Bouillon on his way to the net. With the score tied, 3-3, in the third, Kessel struck again, one of four goals the Bruins scored in the final period.

Game 7 is tomorrow night at the Bell Centre. Call it a hunch, but there's a pretty good chance Kessel will dress for the game.