Inexplicably continuing our tour of the worst hockey teams in existence this morning, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that the long-awaited debut of savior star special right winger Phil Kessel(notes) will occur at home on Tuesday night.

From the Globe & Mail:

The high-scoring forward, acquired by general manager Brian Burke from the Boston Bruins before the start of the 2009-10 NHL regular season, practised this morning on a line with Matt Stajan(notes) and Jason Blake(notes). Kessel, who has been recovering from shoulder surgery, will be in the Toronto lineup when the 30th-place Leafs host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night at the Air Canada Centre.

Down Goes Brown has already christened the line "Two Cancers and a Prancer," and with that all further jokes about it are pointless.

Kessel's debut with the Leafs comes at an emotionally fragile time for Coach Ron Wilson, who showed over the weekend that he's about had it with having to talk about what's been an unknown quantity for the team since the preseason. From Sportsnet:

The losing and the Phil Kessel speculation is clearly grating on Wilson.

"Phil hasn't played in six months," Wilson said after Saturday night's loss in Montreal, when innocently asked a legitimate question about Kessel's status. "I know everybody is going to think he's going to score six goals on the first night. I don't expect that, if he does play on Tuesday. We've just got to remember that he hasn't played in six months. He hasn't even had an exhibition game or anything under his belt, so we'll be very patient when he does play."

See, what Wilson did there is called "tempering expectations," which is something his general manager and the Toronto media did not do after the Leafs' success in fake games during September. Perhaps he knows even a rusty Kessel (that sounded dirty) makes this offense better than 23rd in the NHL (2.45 goals per game on average).

Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star is correct when he writes that "Kessel is the kind of game-breaking forward the team has lacked since Mats Sundin(notes) left." Yet he's probably also correct in writing that, "Shoulders aren't like cats. They only get two lives." Although admittedly we've never really given much thought to the whole feline/rotator cuff comparison.

Related: Mats Sundin, Phil Kessel, Matt Stajan, Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs