The investigation into an alleged rape involving Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane is ongoing, but "at the very least, the NHL needs to send the right signal by suspending Kane until this is resolved, one way or another," according to Jack Todd of the MONTREAL GAZETTE. It is "pretty clear the Blackhawks aren’t going to act unless the NHL forces their hand -- and the time to act is now." If charges are filed against Kane, the case "will dwarf anything that has come before in the NHL." The league and the Blackhawks "have been lucky that all this is going on during cottage season, when the world is paying little attention." At best, Kane’s reputation is "permanently tainted, the myth that he had grown up since his previous brushes with the law now in tatters." At worst, the NHL "will have the man who may be its biggest American star in the dock facing a rape charge" (MONTREAL GAZETTE, 8/17). In St. Louis, Jeff Gordon wrote if Kane is eventually charged, a suspension "seems all but certain." Gordon: "How could the Blackhawks and the NHL allow him to play on while this matter hung over his head?" After the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell's "Ray Rice fiasco, you can expect pro sports leagues to take a hard line on crimes against women." The NHL Kings last season suspended D Slava Voynov "after he was charged with domestic assault." Gordon: "This is bad news for the NHL as a whole and the Blackhawks in particular" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 8/15). SI.com's Allan Muir wrote there is "no doubt the reputation of the league would take a serious hit if one of its marquee stars was charged with a crime as heinous as rape." If charges are filed against Kane, the NHL "would be forced to treat him as swiftly and harshly as it did Voynov" (SI.com, 8/14).
