Evander Kane: Lesson Learned, Or Same Old Nonsense?
Can the Sabres count on the forward to actually learn from his latest mistake?
Buffalo Sabres forward Evander Kane will be back on the ice against the Columbus Blue Jackets, having served his team-imposed one game suspension following the most idiotic of professional athlete gaffes: sleeping late and missing practice.
(Seriously – with all the money these professionals make, they can’t afford a freaking alarm clock?)
The Sabres should be applauded by suspending Kane for his mistake, which had to be the result of some partying he did while in Toronto for the NBA All-Star Game, and to his credit, Kane has said all of the right things following the incident:
"I want to apologize to my teammates, the [team owner] Pegula family as well, and obviously our coaching staff and general manager. It’s something that should have never happened and it’s something that I can promise you won’t happen again, and it’s something that I’m definitely going to learn from."
What will happen next is that Kane will come out and atone for his mistake by remaining hot out on the ice (he has netted 8 goals in his last 13 games), his teammates will hold him accountable and make sure that he learns from this, and the Buffalo Sabres will never have an issue with Evander Kane again.
Right?
Hmmmm.
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It helps to remember why Buffalo was able to make a trade for the former 30-goal scorer in the first place: namely, the fact that everyone in the city of Winnipeg had gotten sick of his antics. Between his immature (and in at least one instance, homophobic) social media posts and his clashing with teammates, Kane gave the Jets organization a reason to ship him out of town.
When a team is willing to bail on a then 23 year-old kid who has already topped 40 points twice, and 50 points once, you expect moments like Kane’s sleeping in incident. The question is whether the Buffalo Sabres can also expect Kane to grow up and avoid the antics that made Winnipeg happy to lose his talents. It’s not like Kane’s tenure in Buffalo had been spotless up until this week’s missed practice: it was just this past December that the Buffalo Police responded to a 911 call about a woman who showed signs of being sexually assaulted following a night spent with Kane in the Buffalo Marriott Harbor Center.
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The question that the Sabres must be asking themselves is, will Kane get his act together, or is this further proof that he is going to be one of those players that trouble just seems to follow? Buffalo is looking to build a team that contend for a championship, and Kane’s talents would go a long way toward making that possible, but it’s not worth keeping him in the 716 if he is unable to get out of his own way.
It’s easy for people who don’t make the amount of money that Evander Kane makes to pass judgement and say things like, “He gets paid millions to play a game – why can’t he grow the hell up?” Hey – now that I think about it, that’s exactly how I feel! Time to grow the hell up, Kane, and start acting like the professional that you claim to be.