Blake Kessel’s website teaches us a lot about Blake Kessel
Six days ago, the Philadelphia Flyers signed free-agent defenseman Blake Kessel to an entry-level contract. Blake is the brother of Toronto Maple Leafs' winger Phil Kessel, and both Kessels are slated to be in the lineup for Tuesday night's preseason game between the Flyers and the Leafs.
Prior to joining the Flyers, Kessel, a New York Islanders' draft pick, spent three years at the University of New Hampshire. How do I know that? Well, it's common knowledge, and also because some of his coursework is still online.
Here's the web page Kessel created for Computer Science 403, an "Introductory course exploring the World Wide Web and its role in modern society," according to UNH.
In CS 403, "Students become proficient with creating and publishing Web pages using XHTML and CSS," and we see evidence of Kessel's proficiency in the assignments he's uploaded to the site.
His final project, for instance, is an interactive biography of his brother, at the time a winger for the Boston Bruins, and if you hate your eyes as much as I do, I highly recommend checking it out. For most sections, in homage to the Bruins, Kessel uses yellow text on a black background, but he really goes for the gusto on the Team USA page, with blue text on a red background. You can almost hear your eyeballs frying when you look at it.
The project ends with a helpful selection of Kessel-related links, such as:
Thank goodness he linked to Youtube and Google, otherwise I wouldn't know where to begin a search on Phil Kessel info.
More goodness from Blake Kessel's web page after the jump.
If you want to learn about Blake Kessel, this web page is the place to be. For instance, if you click the link titled "My favourite site," you end up at ESPN.com. Unexpected!
Assignment 3 must have been his introduction to Bleacher Report, because it features a series of inane lists.
First, the unordered list, which Kessel chose to do on his favorite movies. Here's a screengrab:
It seems suspicious to me that the PotC movies are listed 2-1-3. Did Blake go meta and bury an unordered list within an unordered list for extra credit, or is he showing some preference for Dead Man's Chest? We cannot know.
For the ordered list, Blake went with his favorite NHL teams:
We now know that Philadelphia was Kessel's eighth choice. Suck on that, Flyers fans.
Granted, this list has probably changed a bit since 2008. The Islanders likely top it because they drafted Kessel but, seeing that he exploited a loophole in the CBA to go elsewhere, one assumes that his preferences have changed. From Broad Street Hockey:
He opted to leave college after his junior year. If he stayed all four years at UNH, he would have been property of the Islanders until August 15 of next summer. But since he left early, that all changes. College players that fail to finish all four years of school become unrestricted free agents on June 1 of the fourth year following their draft year. If you've been following along, that means that Kessel used a loophole in the CBA, left college early, and became a free agent on June 1, 2011.
Also, the Bruins are second on this list, likely because they drafted his brother, and the Maple Leafs aren't even on it.
Granted, this might be because Kessel, an American, skews towards American teams. In fact, the only Canadian team included is the Calgary Flames, for some bizarre reason. But don't get too excited, Flames fans. This is a guy who thought PotC 2 was better than the original. His judgment is questionable.
In Assignment 6, we learn that Kessel has a soft spot for Taylor Swift. Tasked with building a page that includes an inline frame, Kessel opts to fill that frame with the lyrics to Swift's "Love Story." Good call, although I would have gone with "You Belong With Me."
It's worth noting that James Van Riemsdyk was also a student at UNH during 2008, but, lucky for him, we have yet to find his student web page.
Ed.: stick tap to @felixpotvin of Pension Plan Puppets for the find.
