Evander Kane is back in the lineup after missing Sunday’s game against the Ottawa Senators due to “maintenance,” but the day off raised a lot of eyebrows around the league. Is Kane really hurt, or are the Edmonton Oilers trying to send him a message?
Kane hasn’t scored a goal in over a month, and sits at just 25 points at 5v5 this year while his most common centreman has been Leon Draisait according to Natural Stat Trick. The two got into a bit of an argument on the bench in the Oilers’ 6–3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, and Kane was out of the lineup the next day.
In the loss, Draisaitl and Connor McDavid were tossed around a bit by the Leafs who clearly made it a goal to get physical with the superstars. Elliotte Friedman suggested Oilers management probably wasn’t happy with the response from guys like Kane who are supposed to stand up for their teammates in a recent episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast.
So is there something brewing under the surface? Let’s discuss.
Lots of rumours from Elliotte Friedman
I went over everything Friedman and Jeff Marek talked about regarding the Oilers on their podcast a couple of days ago, but we’ll stick to just the Kane stuff here.
First of all, Friedman does believe Kane has some sort of nagging injury. It’s another question whether it’s bad enough for him to sit.
People around the league were a bit curious when it was announced Kane wouldn’t play Sunday, including Edmonton reporters. With no real injury updates, and saying the day off was for maintenance, it’s not hard to see why there’s some skepticism.
They also discussed the conversation between Kane and Draisaitl, but didn’t think much of it. I tend to agree. It was a frustrating game, they both want to win, and things like that happen all the time. But that doesn’t mean people around the league weren’t questioning whether it led to Kane being held out the next day.
Kane’s play has not been good enough
Even ignoring any “intangibles” issues, Kane has played himself out of a guaranteed lineup spot recently.
His last goal came in a 6–3 win over the Arizona Coyotes on February 19. Since then, he’s mustered just four assists in 16 games. He played over 17 minutes a night in February. He’s playing 15:44 a night in March.
On the season, Kane’s goals per 60 minutes at 5v5 have been almost cut in half compared to last year according to Natural Stat Trick. He’s been on for 38 Oilers goals for compared to 41 against at 5v5, all while starting in the offensive zone more than he ever has in Edmonton. He’s also seeing less time on the power play.
On the surface, his analytics look solid. He sits at a 53% expected goals percentage, his highest as an Oiler. His expected goals per 60 minutes also sit atop his Oilers career according to MoneyPuck.
But when you compare the numbers to the team when he’s off the ice, it’s not pretty. As I said, at 5v5 the Oilers own 53% of the expected goal share when Kane’s on the ice. When he’s off, that number jumps to almost 60%, again according to MoneyPuck. He’s also shooting just 7.3%, way down from 11.1% last year.
He’s exactly the type of player you want humming for the playoffs, being one of the best guys in the league (until this year) at being a pest while also producing points. A quick turnaround would be huge for the Oilers.
In a game like Saturday’s, Kane needs to step up
Against the Leafs on Saturday, things got chippy. Mattias Janmark fought Max Domi, Darnell Nurse took a misconduct, and the teams combined for 40 penalty minutes.
Toronto made it a mission to push the Oilers stars around. They took every chance they could to hit McDavid and Draisaitl, and hit them hard. Kane was nowhere to be found, though.
Draisaitl clearly wasn’t happy with him, but we can’t say for certain why. What we do know is that his coach and his teammates are looking for a lot more from him.
When he’s at his best, Kane should be the one pushing around the other team’s stars. He needs to be that guy you absolutely hate to play against, but love having on your team. He wasn’t even close to that on Saturday, and for me, if he was in fact scratched, this is the biggest reason why.
As Friedman mentioned, no one in the Oilers’ organization should be happy with how he responded against the Leafs. He needs to be a lot more engaged.
What does it mean moving forward?
As I said, a good Evander Kane is exactly the kind of guy you want on your team for a playoff run. He’s a rat, but a rat you want on your side. But he hasn’t been good this year, and he’s running out of time to get it going.
Maybe the maintenance day helped him get over a nagging injury. Maybe he’s feeling better now and will ramp up his play before the postseason.
Or maybe he’s lost a bit of his game and was healthy scratched. Maybe he’ll be on the third or fourth line for the playoffs, not getting back to his level of play for the last two years.
Even if his scoring production doesn’t come back, one thing Kane has complete control over is his peskiness. At the very least, he should be getting in the other team’s face, especially in the playoffs.
For the Oiler’s sake, hopefully, the day off gave Kane a good wake-up call and he realizes he needs to be a lot better.
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Kane is wasting too much energy with his mouth instead of his actions.
Hasn’t been the same since the wrist injury.
If you can’t get points playing on the second line you better be doing something else like hitting and fore checking. Seen very little of that this season.