On the Patrick Kane allegations

I woke up like this

Cheering on the Blackhawks this past Cup Final series was a very strange one for a plethora of reasons. First, as a casual Blues fan and an avid David Backes fan, I practically need to hate every ounce of the Blackhawks as if they killed my family. I even had a small speech ready if ever had the pleasure of meeting Brent Seabrook. Secondly, I blame Patrick Kane for the cluster-eff that was the 2014 Bronze Medal game in Sochi. I mean, to miss two penalty shots? I don’t hate the photo of him crying that may or may not be saved as a favorite in my phone.

Of course, these two notes paled in comparison to the fact that I’m not big enough of a person to cheer for the team that eliminated mine, especially when their coach makes my skin crawl. And when the Hawks did raise the Cup, I was very happy for people like Kimmo Timonen and Dan Carcillo (if you haven’t seen his Player’s Tribune submission, go now. Seriously, put this post on hold and go. Grab some tissues, too), and got choked upon seeing Carcillo’s fiancee in a Steve Montador jersey. But I was never super enthused for Kane, and I shall explain why.

Kane typically spends his summers in the Buffalo area, having been raised there, and is no stranger to the bar scene. There’s no harm in this, since he’s of legal drinking age and never randomly assaults anyone… except for that time in 2009, when a then-20-year-old Kane assaulted a cab driver for actual pocket change ($0.20 — so real person pocket change, not star hockey player pocket change). While I’m proud of Kane for taking a cab and not driving drunk (ahem Dany Heatley), this is an entitled, obnoxious and illegal thing to do. You can’t just be pissed that you didn’t cover your fare and punch someone. To quote everyone’s pal Billy Madison, that’s assault, brotha.

This weekend brought speculation that Kane was involved in a situation where a rape case is being built. It hasn’t been a banner year for NHL players and the law. From Slava Voynov’s domestic violence, to Mike Ribiero’s sexual assault, and even Jarret Stoll’s drug-fueled pool party, it seems as though the NHLPA should be administering some classes on how to not be a trash basket of a human morally.

The small fact that everyone seems to be forgetting, though, is that there is just speculation right now of what’s happening with Kane. We all have our predisposed notions of Kanes’ guilt or innocence, but we should try to look at this objectively and realize that there are no charges filed. Maybe there will be, maybe there won’t, and this’ll sure tarnish his reputation regardless, but we should try our best to keep our speculation at bay until the story unfolds. And if we’ve seen anything with Bill Cosby, the story ALWAYS unfolds.

It’s at times like this that I wish media understood that sometimes/all the time, it’s better to be factually correct rather than simply reporting first. I say that while walking a thin line because, without hearing even speculative facts early on in any case, we may not have exposure to things that should be seen, but in a case like this, there are a lot of trash stories. When news first broke, a friend forwarded the story which, paraphrased, read like this: “Kane may or may not have been indicated in what could or could not be a sexual assault.” That isn’t news. That’s just a bunch of jargon meant to get hits and toss a star’s name with a disgusting crime.

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It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out, and it’s of utmost importance to understand that a man could be a fantastic hockey player but be a man of questionable morals and maturity level. But we all owe it to ourselves, and those we may influence, to allow this situation to pan out before we declare Kane to be innocent or guilty.