Last Friday, Toronto lost to Buffalo, the worst team in the league, and Phil Kessel, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ star forward walked away from the media scrum, telling them, “Leave me alone.”
The jilted scum (sic) made a story out of that. As Mr. Kessel admits, his answers rarely offer them anything much. “I’m a guy that likes to go out and play hockey and have some fun.” 
Teammate Nazem Kadri, victim of as much negative press as anyone, gave his point of view: “When (Phil) doesn’t feel like he can trust anybody, he gets a little bit shy and a little bit timid in that regard. It’s really nothing personal.” 
Let me put it differently and not so nicely: sports reporters are lazy and judgemental. They do not pose insightful questions that develop understanding of the nature of the game nor the player, but instead pose trite statements with question marks at the end, searching for a quote that they can insert into their pre-written narrative.
These are the statements/questions Kessel avoided: “What are your thoughts on losing to the worst team in the league?” 
“How disappointed are you in the team’s efforts?” “How can the team improve?”
Phil Kessel is a great hockey player not only for his skill and humility on the ice but also for his most admirable disdain for these morons he must endure.
,…”the Maple Leafs made sure Kessel would remain in Toronto blue and white for nearly a decade by concluding an eight-year contract with the star forward worth a reported $64 million on Tuesday, one day before his 26th birthday,…” taken from NHL.com news.
For $64 million dollars you’re damn wrong. He signed his contract and that contract like all the others would have him take questions from reporters. That’s not too difficult a task, even if it is mind-numbing as you’ve pointed out.
Suck it up! Answer the question sir, “What are your thoughts on losing to the worst team in the league?”
His answer would then easily provided: “My thoughts are that that lose now implies we are the worst team in the league, I did nothing to ensure a win for Toronto as I am paid to do, and so I intend to return more than 1/2 of my contact to MLSE.” or similar,..
The players are paid to play the game (as well as attend charity events, etc.) Being paid just to be subjected to the morons of sports media doesn’t matter to me. Why does he have to answer questions posed by an illiterate heart-attack case? It doesn’t make my world any better.
And, actually, his answer to the above hypothetical question would more likely read as follows: “The bounces didn’t go our way.”
See – “The bounces didn’t go our way.” – maybe, with some of that cash (to date estimated to be around “$39,550,000.00 career earnings on file” – source capgeek.com) could hire an articulate scribe who prints out one of those forearm sheets like Ben Roethlisberger likes to use – so that when The Kessel is in the scrum he can glance down to his forearm,.. Team question, OK: “The Coach has our confidence and we need to work harder for him.” Goalie Question, OK, “We need to keep the lanes clear so he can see the puck, & we need to keep the action in their end.” (I tell you – there’s money to made in this forearm press-scrum thing,.. )
My next novel is in fact to be titled “Forearm Press Scrum Scribe”! ($40 million lifetime earnings? A little more overtime on my end, and I’ll catch him yet.
Oh, and there’s this: “Why should Phil Kessel have to talk to these pukes every day?” Brian Burke said today, speaking to reporters at the Prime Time Sports Management Conference in Toronto. “There’s a hailstorm after every loss and they don’t care whether they get it right or not.”
I have to agree with McP – the reporters/writers/producers are morons, they believe because they memorized some odd ball sports statistic in high school, studied (?) communications in college, interned for Fox Sports et. al. they have the right/duty to ask stupid questions – “How can the team improve?” there’s a creative thought if ever there were one. It’s insulting to any fan with half an intellect let alone the guy who just lost (and losing for pros is not an easy thing to take) a game after a tough night.
Have you ever heard the phrase “honey I have a headache”?
Hear, hear, xcode.