Hard Hawk Hockey

Expensive Ride

Just when I thought we might have turned the corner regarding the bad press of the summer, there’s more. On the heels of former Blackhawk great and fan favorite Jeremy Roenick announcing his retirement, providing all of us who loved him a moment or weekend of happy memories and a bit of sadness as he leaves the game, more bad news strikes, offsetting our tearful goodbye to JR.

Patrick Kane was arrested Sunday in Buffalo along with his cousin James Kane. They are charged with robbery, fourth-degree criminal mischief and theft of services. As the story goes, Patrick and his cousin James were taking a cab ride and about the pay the fare which was $13.80. They gave the driver $15.00, and apparently he could not make change. The boys took back their $15.00, and the driver was then punched, his glasses broken, and the boys got out of the cab.

Now, Patrick has already plead not-guilty. I am not aware of his cousins plea, but have read in a couple places that his cousin may not be the most upstanding person. I have no idea if that is true or not, I am only writing what I have read, so please understand that I am making no accusations here.

Whatever the entire story is, the truth needs to come out as soon as possible so that the Hawks can eliminate the addtional bad PR this is generating. We all know what a night of drinking can sometimes do, and when you are a high priced athlete things can escalate. They can also be taken out of context or exaggerated. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but you have to believe that some of this is true, and would be a bit strange to make up. I would think that Patrick would have made a better decision then what he is being charged with, and or that he would have been able to just drop the whole situation, and tell his cousin to just forget it if money was the source of the problem.

I still have alot of questions and am just hoping that this gets cleared up quickly. It’s a shame that this happens, but once again, young professional players who make alot of money need to insure that they do not put themselves in situations like this. I will give Patrick credit for one thing only at this point. If he was drunk and we do not know if he was, at least he was not driving. But, for godsakes, do not put yourself in the limelight for something like this. Hockey players in general have a reputation to uphold. We don’t typically read about this nonsense as much as we do in other sports.

I agonized over whether or not to post about this story. I did not want to take anything away from the retirement of Jeremy Roenick, however I ultimately felt that I couldn’t overlook this situation.

Thanks for reading.