Just seeing Patrick Kane was something. The Blackhawks winger has been all but invisible since the police investigation began seven weeks ago in his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y.
He had virtually nothing to say, and clearly had been lawyered-up, instructed to say he has respect for the legal system and “appreciates the questions’’ and was “looking forward to a new season.’’
Hawks president John McDonough looked and sounded grim as can be as he introduced Kane at the press conference in South Bend, Ind. where the Blackhawks started camp.
Share Events on The CubeIt was a calculated and deliberate decision,’’ said McDonough to bring Kane to camp. Which, if translated, seems to mean the legal advice McDonough has received told him it was at least moderately OK to have Kane appear in public as part of the organization.
Kane is 26, and he is balding rapidly. His new hairstyle is to comb his thinning blond locks straight back. He is not going to look like a kid anymore. And he better not act like one, ever again. That is the entire deal here: Can this genius on ice get his life in order? No one knows.
Is it drinking? Is it lack of maturity? Lack of judgement? Lack of ability to understand how the world works, since he was discovered as that genius at age 14 and has never been “normal’’ and learned what normal young men do?
It’s over now—nobody cares what his issues are. Get it straight, or get out.
When he walked off the dais at Notre Dame, Kane sure didn’t look like a three-time Stanley Cup winner. He looked like a little, beaten loser.
The legal system—and Kane himself—will determine if he gets one more pass to become an adult. Before it’s way too late.
