Hawks Hockey Hoiden

Yes, this blog is back, at least temporarily.  While I’m still livid with the Hawks management for screwing over Martin Havlat and Dale Tallon, the latest Hawk debacle with Patrick Kane has forced me to come out of my hole and comment.

Before I get to Patrick Kane though, it is necessary to fire a shot across Adam Burish’s bow.  Burish had the audacity to badmouth Martin Havlat for Havlat’s comments about his contract deal gone south.  Like a true keister kisser, Adam Burish toed the company line and forever sealed himself as a brown noser in this fan’s mind. (You know how your nose gets brown dontcha Bur?  Although, I’d venture to say your entire head is brown at this point.)  But Adam Burish doesn’t just have egg on his face; at this point he is wearing an entire chicken coop.  Last season he bragged on his blog ‘Dropping the Gloves‘ that,

There is a code amongst hockey player that you hear in all sports, but it’s at a higher standard here. When you are on a team, you are a part of a “family”, and you do not do anything to put yourself above your family. You don’t blast your teammates to the media, you don’t dress for attention, and you don’t get yourself in the media for reasons outside of your job, and if you do it is dealt with.

Really? You don’t blast your teammates to the media Bur? Yet, that’s exactly what you did to Martin Havlat on Comcast Sportsnet last month.  Yeah, well, what goes around comes around Bur, and when it’s your turn to be screwed over by management, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya!

Bur’s comments, while incredibly hypocritical, also come to bear today with what’s happened with Patrick Kane.  As everyone has almost certainly heard by now, Kane was arrested in Buffalo on Sunday for theft of services, criminal mischief, and second-degree robbery for a scrap he and his cousin got into with a cabbie.  Several things strike me.  First, despite Burish’s comments vaunting hockey players’ “higher standards,” Patrick Kane’s behavior here seems to mimic quite nicely the antics of lots of other athletes who engage in thug behavior.  Second, it’s odd that Kane would show so much aggression off the ice and yet be thrown around like a rag doll on the ice.  And lastly, and this is the worst, my theory about Kane’s attitude change last season seems to have been proven true.  Kane appears to have bought into his own hype and now looks to be just another overly pampered, coddled athlete.

I started wondering about him about mid-season last year.  While his performance had fallen off even before his injury, he had for some reason started being a bit arrogant in interviews.  And then who can forget his infamous “goldfish” interview in April wherein he said the reason he had been pulled from Game 3 of the Western Conference playoffs against the Calgary Flames was because his pet goldfish died and he had to fly back to Chicago to flush it down the toilet.  Like others, I speculated that he had been pulled from Game 3 because he couldn’t take the hits and therefore wasn’t contributing on offense.  Kaner’s playoff stats bear that out as he was -9 in post-season play.  So, for those who go on comparing Kane to a young Wayne Gretzky I ask why? And now I wonder if his arrogance wasn’t something of a defense mechanism to cover for his performance for the second half of last season. Is this off-ice behavior also him acting out?

Like others on radio and TV today, I’m also wondering if Kaner hasn’t gotten into the hooch.  Some just can’t hold their liquor, especially at 20 when they’re not legally allowed to drink anyway.  Maybe Kaner is just partying like anyone his age would, but regardless, even most fratboys usually know better than to get into scrapes when they’re drunk.  And if you’re a mean drunk, then don’t drink! (especially when there’s a million dollar contract on the line!)  Some are also wondering if a felony conviction will keep Kane from being able to go to Canada for games this coming season since Canada has a policy of prohibiting convicted felons into their country.  So, while the Blackhawks organization may be tight-lipped on this their latest controversy, Cabbiegate looks like it could spell big trouble for Kane and the Hawks.

As ever, only time will tell how this will all unfold, but one thing is vividly clear now: Patrick Kane has an attitude problem.  The Hawks can either address it head on and nip it in the bud, or they can go on sailing the river denial.  Fans and sports pundits saw it last year right about the time Kane started being unable to take big-boy hits, so what excuse can the Blackhawks organization possibly give for continuing to ignore it?

And as a side note, I think Kane’s behavior is yet another indication of how poorly-run the Blackhawks organization is thanks to John McDonough.  If this is the way of things, then I would prefer the Hawks go back to obscurity.  Right about now, the Hawks organization should be asking itself ‘What price is too high for the cup?’  As it stands, there’s too much blood on the ice, too many black eyes for the organization, and apparently a black eye for one cabbie in Buffalo, New York who never saw Patrick Kane’s bad attitude coming.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 9:39 am and is filed under Adam Burish, Chicago Blackhawks, Patrick Kane. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.