Evander Kane flexing his muscle for Edmonton Oilers during playoff run
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Evander Kane, who likes his wheels, drove a rented Lamborghini to the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles before Game 5 of the first-round playoff series, a Ferrari to Rogers Place before Game 3 here against Vegas last Saturday, and hopped into a Rolls Royce for a more sedate ride to the rink to prepare for Game 4 Monday.
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But really, a vintage Pontiac GTO, a Plymouth Barracuda, or a Shelby T350 would have fit his growling style better after the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 win.
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'Maybe a muscle car, instead?' he was asked.
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He didn't dispute the idea, laughing at the post-game question after he definitely took the dirt road Monday.
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Much of his work was around the blue paint, much of it in Vegas goalie Adin Hill's kitchen, so much so the heated Hill raced out of the net after the Edmonton Oilers winger tumbled over him after being shoved by Brayden McNabb, shortly after Adam Henrique's second goal — the fuming Hill whacking Kane with his blocker as a dust-up erupted along the boards.
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Hill did lose his cool. Hall of Fame goalie/commentator Henrik Lundqvist on the TNT broadcast in the U.S. said Hill would be best to calm down going forward and Hill did just that over the last 40 minutes keeping Vegas in the game . But Kane kept her revved up and he wasn't in a Lamborghini, like stopping to pick up Connor Brown for a ride as was in LA. Instead, Kane was a beast on the road, yeah, like a '66 Barracuda, loud and proud in Game 4.
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'A gamer'
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After missing all 82 league games and the first playoff game in the opening round against Los Angeles, Kane was everywhere on the stats sheet in Game 4 against the Golden Knights.
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He assisted on the Henrique's second goal, then he whipped a shot off McNabb's skate with the puck redirecting from short side to 5-hole to beat Hill in the second off a rush to make it 3-0. In the first 40 minutes, he only played 7:38 but had two points, five hits and was plus 3.
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In the nine games he's played this spring, he has four goals and seven points.
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'Evander's is a gamer. He loves the big pressure games when there's a lot on the line,' said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch.
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'The physical play, scoring a big goal for us, crashing the net, winning puck battles. We saw it all. We have a lot of physicality throughout our lineup. (Zach) Hyman (65 hits this playoffs) has done a ton of it, (Vasily) Podkolzin, (Kasperi) Kapanen (five hits in his first game of the playoffs). It's nice to have that element but the guy who leads the charge is Kane.'
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