After being hounded by Corey Perry on the bench in the Edmonton Oilers’ game against the Calgary Flames on Saturday, Evander Kane has now been yelled at by a teammate twice in the last two weeks.
As I wrote recently, it’s been a rough year for Kane. He has two goals in his last 23 games (both in the same contest) and saw under 10 minutes of ice for the first time all year Saturday night. He was demoted to the fourth line for the third period.
Since writing that article, the Oilers have played six games. Kane went pointless in five of them, seeing over 15 minutes of ice time just once in a 6–1 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
Head Coach Kris Knoblauch has cut Kane’s ice time from 17 minutes a night in February to just 13:25 so far in April. It feels like the organization is reaching a tipping point with him.
Things looked great Friday night
The funny part of this whole situation is Kane might have played his best game of the year on Friday. In the Oilers’ 6–2 statement win over the Colorado Avalanche, he scored twice and was a +3.
Edmonton owned 92% of the expected goals when Kane was on the ice at 5v5 according to Natural Stat Trick. His line didn’t give up a high-danger chance and they out-shot the Avalanche 7–2.
Kane, Perry, and Ryan McLeod looked like they were building some chemistry on the new-look third line. They only started in the offensive zone once, but held play in the Avalanche zone and out-shot, out-chanced and outscored Colorado.
For a guy looking for a spark, Friday looked like it.
Having a Battle of Alberta not even 24 hours later seemed like fate. Kane lives for the rivalry games, and had a perfect chance to keep the momentum going against the Flames and get his season back on track.
An awful showing in the Battle of Alberta
The complete opposite happened in Calgary.
Kane played one of his worst games of the year. He got demoted to the fourth line, played less than he has in a game all season, and was yelled at by his linemate (again).
The Oilers were uncompetitive when he was on the ice at 5v5. They were out-shot 11–4 and out-chanced 9–4, but luckily his minutes ended up 0–0.
His ice time resulted in an 18.3% expected goal share, which led to his demotion in the third period.
A turnover in the offensive zone is what ultimately got him yelled at by Perry. But it’s not like he was good otherwise.
He also took a dumb slashing penalty up 2–0, giving the Flames a chance to cut the lead in half early in the second, and they capitalized.
When Kane is on, he’s a pest that gets under the other team’s skin. Saturday, he was the opposite. He let a little bump from Dryden Hunt turn into a slashing call, getting the Flames right back into the game. Those things just can’t happen on a team gunning for a Stanley Cup.
So what now
There are only six games left until the playoffs, and as of right now, Kane isn’t doing much to help the team win. The Oilers are getting beat when he’s on the ice, and his teammates are clearly growing frustrated.
He’s not being a rat, he’s mostly letting his frustration get to him. A penalty like the one on Hunt in Saturday’s game can’t happen. He is supposed to be drawing penalties like that, not taking them.
But a productive Kane is a key part of Edmonton’s success, especially in the playoffs.
Pestiness becomes a huge part of the game in the postseason. Playing the same team over and over, you’ve got to try to get in their heads and draw them into dumb penalties and plays. That’s what Kane should be good at.
He’s got two more years at $5.125M after this one, so he and the Oilers have to figure out how to make this work. It’s unlikely any other team wants to take on that money with how he’s been playing, especially after he’s been scolded by his teammates twice recently.
Corey Perry wants him to succeed
While he was clearly upset at Kane on the bench, it seems the two have moved on as Perry explained after practice Monday.
Perry is a seasoned veteran, he knows what he’s doing. If he thinks the best way to get Kane going is to give him some tough love, that’s what he’ll do.
After all, these guys are teammates. They both want to win, and it’s getting to crunch time here. As we get closer to the playoffs, tension and emotions get higher. Something like this should happen now rather than in a best-of-seven, and hopefully it gets Kane going.
Perry knows as well as anyone Kane’s role on the Oilers is huge. If he can get back on track, and back to making player’s lives miserable, Edmonton would get a huge bump heading into the most important part of the year.
