An established power forward that’s at his best when he’s knocking bodies around down low and agitating skaters with a couple of shoves and stick taps, Evander Kane was trying his luck for most of Tuesday night against Boston’s skaters — hurling a number of chirps against the B’s both during game action and after the whistle.
A 6-foot-2, 210-pound force on skates and armed with a howitzer of a right hook, there are few who can go toe to toe with Kane if you get on his bad side. Sean Kuraly bore some of the brunt of Kane’s wrath after the Sharks winger shoved him after the whistle in the second period, with Kane landing a couple of punches in before the scrap was subsided by the linesmen.
With Tuesday’s game at TD Garden standing as the second meeting between Boston and San Jose in eight days, Kane has already developed a bit of bad blood with the B’s both as of late and earlier in his career — getting tangled up with Charlie McAvoy throughout overtime during a matchup on Feb. 18, while also chirping Kevan Miller in 2017 by way of Twitter.
“He was like that in San Jose as well,” Jake DeBrusk said of Kane. “I think that’s just the style he plays. I think that’s what feeds into his game and helps him out."
With his size and punishing blows, Kane has the means to torment opposing players and usually get out of a bout with just a couple of bruised knuckles. The task becomes a bit more daunting when the guy in the opposing corner has seven inches and 40 pounds on you.
It seemed inevitable as Tuesday’s game progressed, with Kane and Zdeno Chara usually locked in battles down low — exchanging pleasantries by way of pushes, chirps and shin taps.
Something eventually had to boil over, right?
Not necessarily, at least from Chara’s perspective.
“It’s something that happens during games,” he said. “It’s a physical game, maybe some frustration on his part, I’m not sure, I can’t really speak for him. Just obviously, bracing myself for a check and it just happened.”
What happened at 3:44 in the third period? After another battle for the puck down low ended in both Chara and Kane colliding once again, Chara’s elbow caught Kane in the face.
Clearly none too pleased with the hit and the lack of a call, Kane decided to poke the bear, grabbing Chara and ragdolling the 6-foot-9 blueliner to the ice before landing a couple of punches.
“I jump him all the time, just in the room,” Brad Marchand said of Chara. “If you’re going to fight him, that’s the way to do it. You know, so, not a guy you want to square off with, but obviously a very tough man and a very scary man.”
What transpired after Chara managed to get back on his skates was about as much of a given as a skater tapping a puck into an empty net.
“I give him respect for fighting Zee and standing up for himself,” DeBrusk said of Kane. “But when you go after Thanos like that, it’s a little tough.”
Those early punches on Chara were the last that Kane managed to get on Boston’s captain, with the defenseman keeping the Sharks forward at bay with his reach while landing a couple of heavy shots in. By the time both skaters were separated, Kane had earned himself a cut on the nose and game misconduct for criticizing officials from the sin bin, while Chara was whistled for fighting and elbowing.
Zdeno Chara vs. Evander Kane. pic.twitter.com/xlSySEnZJL
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 27, 2019