First Star, Worst Star: February 8, 2015

We’re close to 3/4 of the way through the season, the playoff race is heating up, games are becoming more meaningful by the day, and Oiler and Leaf fans are making plans for their annual No-Playoffs Spring. And since it’s the first Sunday without any football to distract us why don’t you go ahead and use this weeks First Star, Worst Star to ignore your family! 

The Buffalo Sabres are bad. Like, even-worse-than-the-Oilers bad! And on Saturday night one play was able to encapsulate their entire doomed campaign. 

This play is almost perfect. Tyler Myers using his gargantuan size for once to make a huge hit. Jamie Benn getting caught puck watching. And Myers’ own defensive partner Josh Gorges taking the worst of the impact. The only thing that would have made this play go Full Buffalo was if Meyers ended up putting the puck into his own net. I’m not holding my breath for Myers to become as impactful of a defenseman as he was hyped up to be coming into his draft, but if he starts laying the body like this more often I’ll start becoming more of a fan. Maybe next time he’ll take out the entire Sabres forward line! I can’t wait! 

This story has already been beaten to death, but my lord Evander Kane and the Jets, what are you doing?

I thought that Kane wasn’t getting a fair shake early on his career. It seemed to me like one of those stupid hockey things where a guy is somehow showing TOO much personality, so therefore he wasn’t a team first guy, whose soul purpose was to to out there and execute the game plan and give 110%. 

However it seems pretty clear that he wasn’t doing much to help himself. When your teammates are throwing your clothes into the shower like it’s bantam summer hockey school all over again, something is obviously rotten in the state of Denmark. 

And neither side is coming out of this looking great. Kane has basically cemented his reputation as a problem child, which will theoretically make it harder for the Jets to trade him for fair value, meaning he may have to wait even longer for his ticket out of Manitoba. And the Jets have alienated one of their best young players, and have allowed themselves to be wrapped up in unnecessary drama as they’re holding onto a wild card spot for dear life. 

This story went from interesting tabloid gossip to a soapbox for the morally superior to stand up on and wring their hands over a player being a prima donna. It’s silly and sad and I’m sure we’ll all be better off when this finally ends in a messy divorce. And on a completely unrelated note I feel as if the Edmonton Oilers and their fans would welcome Evander Kane with open arms. But that’s neither here nor there…