For a lot of people – and that includes fans and media – Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf's media presence leaves something to be desired.

It always has, if you go back to their days in Boston and Calgary. It probably always will.

There's no way around it: The two highest paid and most recognizable faces of the Toronto Maple Leafs are not scrum dynamos. They're not Joffrey Lupul, their personable, outgoing teammate.

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Kessel, when he is available, is somewhat awkward and withdrawn in front of the camera.

Phaneuf, for all his efforts – and he's made many since he was named Leafs captain – sounds wooden and cold.

And none of that should matter when we talk about them as hockey players.

First of all, part of the problem is that who players are in front of the camera is not actually who they are. Some are uncomfortable in that situation – just as many in the general public would be – and some simply don't want to be themselves for the whole world to see.

That isn't uncommon in the NHL. But it gets put in the spotlight in Toronto, day after relentless day.

"I don't think people are going to get to know Dion in a hurry," former Leafs GM Brian Burke once said of Phaneuf. "I think he's a lot like me. I don't care if people understand me as a person or if they know about my private life – I try to keep that private.

"And I think that's going to be Dion. I think you're going to see the exterior part that he needs to do to be an effective captain and that's all you're going to see."

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Kessel and Phaneuf do not appear to have many allies in the media, after more than five years as Leafs. They are rarely defended and often take the blame when the team loses.

They're lightning rods, more than most, and it helps that people want to read and hear about them.

Make no mistake, they're fair game. In this mess of a season, everyone deserves criticism, and that obviously includes the highest paid and highest profile players.

But the reality here is that – as a frustrated Kessel blurted out on Tuesday in his rant defending his friend and captain – Dion Phaneuf didn't build this team. He didn't put himself – a good but flawed defenceman who had slid down Calgary's depth chart when he was moved – into the No. 1 role, where he's averaged an almost-NHL-leading 25 minutes a game in his time with the Leafs.

He has played as much as Zdeno Chara, and he's not Zdeno Chara.

But in the context of how bad this team has been, Phaneuf has performed reasonably well. With Phaneuf on the ice, the Leafs have been outscored by only 13 goals at 5-on-5 in his entire tenure with the team (354 games).

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When he hasn't been on the ice, that number is 52 goals.

(Yes, plus-minus is typically a flawed statistic but can be illustrative with one team and in large sample sizes such as this.)

The Leafs have been much better with Phaneuf on the ice than off it, despite the fact he has been partnered with Keith Aulie, Korbinian Holzer or Mike Kostka at various times, and despite the fact he always gets the most difficult assignments every night.

Phaneuf's not a perfect player by any means, but he is what he was when the Leafs acquired him from the Flames, both on and off the ice. He hasn't badly underperformed, and his results in the role he's been given have been predictable.

There's even an argument to be made he's played better than expected.

The relentless criticism, then, appears to stem at least in part from elsewhere – perhaps even from the fact he hasn't become a warm and fuzzy type with the press.

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That, too, was predictable after what happened in Calgary – where the media turned on Phaneuf – but you can certainly see why players like Kessel view the situation as unfair.

He sees a talented teammate playing as well as he can. He also sees the human side of Dion Phaneuf, the part the cameras don't catch.

And he doesn't agree with the pile on.

"The way the media treats Dion Phaneuf in this city is embarrassing," Kessel said. "I think a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves."

"The job description that we gave him does not include that he has to be interesting for [the media]," Burke said back in 2010, when asked about Phaneuf being put into a media-heavy role. "He's not hosting a day-time talk show."

No he's not. But he's being judged by some who want him to.