Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane did not travel with the team for last night's preseason game against Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena, but coach Joel Quenneville said that Kane's playing status "has not changed" despite a report earlier yesterday that suggested evidence tampering in the sexual assault case against the All-Star, according to Chris Hine of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Several of the Blackhawks' top players who played in Tuesday's preseason game against the Red Wings at the United Center -- including Kane, C Jonathan Toews, RW Marian Hossa and D Brent Seabrook -- "did not make the trip to Detroit" for last night's game. Thomas Eoannou, the attorney for Kane's accuser, yesterday said that a police evidence bag in the case "had been tampered with." But the Hamburg (N.Y.) Police Department said that no evidence "had been tampered with under its control." Hine reports if Kane is charged, the NHL "likely would suspend him indefinitely pending the outcome of the case." However, the league currently "is backing the Hawks' decision to put Kane on the ice." NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that yesterday's developments "did not affect Kane's status in the eyes of the league" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/24). In Chicago, David Haugh writes all of yesterday's uncertainty "underscored why the NHL should launch its own independent probe into the Kane incident, pronto, similar to how the NFL investigated domestic-abuse allegations against Ray Rice" in '14 (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/24).
LEAGUE NEEDS TO MAKE A STATEMENT: USA TODAY's Christine Brennan writes the NHL "must tell Kane it’s time to leave training camp and go on paid leave, the NHL equivalent of the NFL’s commissioner’s exempt list." The NHL also "must immediately begin its own investigation into the accusations against Kane, which it so far has been reluctant to do." The league has been "altogether too quiet for too long on such a serious issue." Brennan: "There’s no watching the process play out anymore, not with a superstar like Kane, not after what the NFL went through last year." Yesterday's "disturbing news screams out for someone -- anyone -- to treat this case in the most serious manner possible." This is "not the time for Kane to be playing hockey" (USA TODAY, 9/24). In Vancouver, Cam Cole writes Kane remains in training camp as fans "cheer him lustily," and the NHL "puts out a blanket, 'Well, he hasn’t been charged with anything, so...' and passes the buck." The team and league "are supposed to be better than that." Everyone is "entitled to due process and Kane has not been charged." But the league "didn’t wait for a conviction before suspending" Kings D Slava Voynov in October '14. Kane "has not reached ... the formally charged stage, but a whole different threshold has been crossed" with the possibility of evidence tampering, "one that’s possibly never been seen before in a rape allegation against an athlete" (VANCOUVER SUN, 9/24).
NO-WIN SITUATION: THE HOCKEY NEWS' Ken Campbell wrote with the NHL "standing by its decision" to allow Kane to play as the case continues to develop, the league is "stuck in a situation in which it cannot win." Campbell: "If it continues to allow Kane to play and practice with the Blackhawks, it risks alienating those who think it is not reacting appropriately to a very serious allegation of sexual assault. And if it suspends Kane, it will be accused of having a knee-jerk reaction and taking action before all the facts are known. So in the absence of any sanity at all in this situation, the league is allowing Kane to stay. And that’s as it should be." It is "difficult to say the NHL and the Blackhawks are doing the right thing here because in a case this strange, there doesn’t seem to be a right or wrong way to handle this" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 9/23). Meanwhile, SPORTSNET.ca's Damien Cox wondered "where similar outrage is over the fact" that Sabres C Ryan O’Reilly "has actually been charged with a serious DUI charge, but is in the Sabres camp, proceeding with his career" (SPORTSNET.ca, 9/23).
