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Will someone give the Avs a broom so they can sweep Edmonton out of the NHL playoffs and trash Oilers villain Evander Kane?
Kane is a speck in the hockey game. The kind that needs bleach and a wire brush to scrub the stink off the ice.
What Kane Nazem did to Kadri in knocking the Avalanche Center onto the boards with apparent intent to injure fits into the modus operandi of a villain known for displaying a fake COVID-19 Vax card and accused of doing so , sitting on a stinking pile of gambling debts.
“The hit, that’s the most dangerous thing in hockey,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said late Saturday after the Avs beat Edmonton 4-2 to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals. Kane “hit him headfirst from behind eight feet from the boards.”
That the NHL should suspend Kane for no fewer than two games is a no-brainer. The real fallacy is why Kane gets hired by a team in a city that loves hockey as much as Edmonton.
Unable to beat the Avs, Kane tries to hurt anyone in a Colorado sweater who gets in his way. Chaos is his calling card. It’s dangerous to turn your back on a ruthless hockey player.
“Obviously it’s a huge loss,” said Bednar, who doesn’t expect Kadri to be back in the squad any time soon. “He’s out. He’ll be out for at least this series…if not longer.”
It only took 66 seconds in Game 3 for Kane to lose his mind. When Kadri got the puck behind the end line on Edmonton goalie Mike Smith’s gloved side, Kane teased his opponent and delivered a dirty crosscheck into the avs center, which saw Kadri out and slammed his left shoulder into the boards.
“I don’t like that,” said Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog, who witnessed Kane’s cheap shot from the Colorado bench.
Those nasty punches are unforgivable, “that send shivers down your spine,” added Landeskog. “They’re taught from a young age not to do that.”
Kadri got up painfully slowly. With obvious discomfort, he immediately went to the Avalanche dressing room and did not return to action.
Hockey is a tough sport of brave men who pride themselves on their crooked noses and aren’t afraid to spit chiclets. But who raised Kane to respect enemies?
He received a five-minute major penalty for boarding Kadri. This wasn’t a hockey game. It was intentional assault.
If the NHL has any common sense, the league bureau will suspend Kane for no fewer than two games for no other reason than stopping Kane from harming someone else on an Avalanche team that’s chasing the Stanley Cup is.
Avalanche dominated play so often that Game 3 could have been a laugh without Smith. The Edmonton goalie was a walrus who flopped on the ice, threw every inch of his body in front of shots from Colorado, and robbed Andrew Cogliano and Landeskog with head-shaking saves so spectacular a man could say coo coo ca choo.
But the hockey gods take notes. In the hockey Hades, a warm place awaits Kane.
He plays for Edmonton on a one-year, $2.1 million contract because San Jose waived the veteran after he was arrested and suspended by the league office in October for carrying a fake COVID-Vax card. He has filed for bankruptcy, racked up over $1 million in gambling debts and has been accused of female abuse throughout his life.
So perhaps it was fair that the decisive goal came from JT Compher, who admirably centered the second line in Kadir’s absence. Compher leaped from the box, hopped on a loose puck and beat Smith for the score, which broke a 2-2 tie with seven minutes and 18 seconds left in the third period.
“We’re going to need (Compher) to make a difference going forward,” Nathan MacKinnon told reporters during the post-game press conference.
His name is Kane, which rhymes with Fleck. If he returns to the ice this season, it will leave a mark in the NHL playoffs.
