Phil Kessel's new teammates in Vegas surprise him with a special birthday cake

The NHL's current Iron Man and all-around lovable lug Phil Kessel celebrated his 35th anniversary yesterday with his new teammates in Vegas. And, wouldn't you know it, his teammates surprised him with a very appropriate hot dog themed birthday cake.

Check it out:

No word yet on whether or not Phil actually shared any of his cake...

In all seriousness, I know that Kessel is often the punchline of jokes from fans and media alike, but he deserves an incredible amount of credit. He has played an incomprehensible 982 games in a row, last missing action in November of 2009. Once he plays his 7th game this upcoming season he'll become the NHL's all-time Iron Man, surpassing the now retired Keith Yandle. Both Kessel and Yandle deserve some serious respect for breaking Doug Jarvis' record of 964 consecutive games, a record that was once thought to be unbeatable. Just wild stuff...

As for Kessel and his new situation with the Golden Knights, I'm excited to see how he fits with the team. The Golden Knights are a hard forechecking team with a lot of offensive punch. Sound familiar? That's the style of play that has enabled Kessel to be successful in this league for 15 seasons. He may not put up the point per game numbers that he did earlier in his career, but he still managed a solid eight goals and 52 points in 82 games with the sad sack Arizona Coyotes last season. If he gets playing time alongside a star player like Jack Eichel or Mark Stone, I could see Kessel hitting the 20 goal plateau once again. Hell, he could even hit the 30 goal mark if he gets hot on the power play.

The Golden Knights are an interesting team heading into the season, in my opinion. There's the pressure of making the post-season after a serious mis-step last season and there's, of course, their tentative situation in goal. Without Marc Andre Fleury or Robin Lehner to bail them out anymore, it'll be up to veteran players like Eichel, Stone and Alex Pietrangelo to show some leadership this season.