Insider Suggests Other Reason For Kane's Absence

Elliotte Friedman had a few thoughts about Evander Kane having a maintenance day against the Ottawa Senators.

Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports - Insider Suggests Other Reason For Kane's Absence

EDMONTON -- Love him or hate him, Evander Kane is a fighter.

Since joining the Edmonton Oilers in the middle of the 2021-22 season, Kane has 106 points in 151 regular season games. He hasn't been scared to throw the body or shoot the puck either - 472 hits to go along with 496 shots.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POYtZi7zIDA[/embed]

Things this season have been up and down for the forward. He started the first 21 games of the year with 20 points. Since that time he has 19 points in 46 games.

The latest story about Kane was him missing the game against the Ottawa Senators. Kris Knoblauch labelled the absence a "maintenance day."

According to Elliotte Friedman, there might be more to this than meets the eye.

On the 32 Thoughts podcast Friedman dove into this, "there was a lot of conspiracy theory floating around the Oilers on Sunday night when Kane didn't play. There was a scene of him on the bench with [Leon] Draisaitl - to me that didn't look that bad."

"What I didn't like on Saturday night... [Connor] McDavid and Draisaitl got pushed around. If I was [in] the Oilers organization I would not have liked how McDavid and Draisaitl were treated in Toronto. There's nothing wrong with what the Maple Leafs did to them - they should try and rough them up - but it's on yourselves to protect them."

Friedman then went on to talk about the tweets that came out from journalists who were in Ottawa, after Knoblauch announced Kane would miss the game because of "maintenance." He said, "you could see in some of the tweets - you could tell the reporters who were there didn't believe it. They cast doubt over it."

"I have to say, I wondered about it too."

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzkN0IoxIVU[/embed]

My Take

While I was not at the scrum in Ottawa (I presently do not travel with the team when they play out of town) I thought Kane missing the game was strange. Once it was explained as maintenance, I didn't think much of it.

Kane has had some injury issues this year, there is no doubt of that. Even from how Kane has played - apart from his physicality - he hasn't seemed like himself on the ice for a long time.

The Oilers have a morning skate in Winnipeg this morning ahead of their game against the Winnipeg Jets. Hopefully there will be some clarity on Kane's status for tonight's game.

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