PITTSBURGH -- It was the tweet read 'round the hockey world.
After Team USA was eliminated from the World Cup of Hockey in September after going a dreadful 0-3, Phil Kessel, who was left off the American roster for the tournament, took a jab on Twitter:
Just sitting around the house tonight w my dog. Felt like I should be doing something important, but couldn't put my finger on it.
— Phil Kessel (@PKessel81) September 21, 2016
Members of Team USA did not like his comment and thought the timing was poor and in bad taste. Zach Parise was ticked. Derek Stepan said the tweet, if directed at Team USA, was "disrespectful." David Backes said those types of comments will "be remembered when whatever happens going forward happens going forward."
Kessel and the Pittsburgh Penguins host Backes and the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena for the first time since the tweet. Even though months have passed, and Kessel later told ESPN.com that his comments weren't directed at the players, there's been zero communication between Kessel and Backes.
"None at all," Backes said. "It's been a few months that have passed, and it's one of those things where, in the moment, I don't know if I was referencing that I was not going to forget that. It's more of people don't forget your comments when, no matter what the situation is, handling things the right way is something that as a professional athlete, it starts to define you and how you handle yourself.
"For me, it was done in the wrong way. You ask a question and I'm going to give you a candid response on what I think, and I don't think that was the time or the place. Yeah, it wasn't the performance we wanted as a team, to not have much success outside the exhibition games. But we're playing an NHL hockey game [Wednesday] and we need two points out of it and that's what really matters."
Dec. 14 has been circled on the calendar for many reasons, and Backes wants his response to be on the scoreboard at the final buzzer. Kessel and the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in June, so beating the reigning champions is the goal for Backes and the Bruins. The Penguins had an off day on Tuesday, and Kessel was not made available to the media.
"To be able to beat a Stanley Cup champion in their building sends a big shot in the arm for a lot of guys," Backes said. "It doesn't matter who we're playing ... and we have another opportunity to boost our confidence against a really good team [Wednesday]."
Players in the Team USA locker room agreed back in September with Backes' response to Kessel. Even now, three months later, it still hits a chord.
"As a fellow countryman, and I don't want to parallel it to the military because what we do is not even close to their sacrifice, but those guys that aren't selected for a mission still support their fellow comrades and wish them the best, and aren't going to sling mud if things aren't going well," Backes said.
"We made a lot of parallels to the military during the World Cup, and just in my mind it was something that if I'm not selected for the next Olympics, or the next international event, I'll still be wearing red, white and blue at home and cheering those guys on and wishing them the best. That's my nature. If there's a little comedy that comes out of it on [Kessel's] side, when in reality we had a mission and we failed."
Some will wonder why this is being brought up again months later, but there's a certain passion and motivation that comes with representing your country, and any type of criticism is never forgotten.
The Bruins' game against the Penguins will mean more than just two points for Backes.
Representing Team USA "is one of the most prideful things I've ever been able to do, and to do it in three World Championships, two Olympics and a World Cup, those colors mean a lot to me," Backes said. "My best friend growing up served three tours in the Marines and served overseas and now I've got the freedoms that I have, and I'm able to do what I do, because selfless people like him serve our country and lay their lives on the line to fight for us. I tried to grasp a little bit of that pride that those men and women have overseas in my international [playing] experiences and use that as a little bit more motivation to lay everything on the line and fight for my country."