Would Channel 2 mention Patrick Kane’s taxi cab problem last summer in its lead story Wednesday night celebrating the Stanley Cup finals hero?
Kane’s own enthusiastic words in a post-game interview after he led the Chicago Black Hawks to a 4-3 overtime victory that won the Stanley Cup in a six-game series with the Philadelphia Flyers answered that question best.
“Not a chance, not a chance,” Kane said after NBC’s Pierre McGuire told him “be on your best behavior at the parade.”
“That’s youthful enthusiasm,” added McGuire as Kane skated away.
Many people back home in Buffalo may have wondered if McGuire’s “behavior” line was referring to Kane’s headline-grabbing taxi cab problems last August which resulted in a disorderly conduct guilty plea.
To his credit, Kane vaguely referenced the problem in a second live post-game interview that Channel 2 ran around midnight. Asked to assess his year, Kane said it didn’t start so well in August and noted that a year that started “so bad” ended “so good.”
Afterwards, Channel 2 sports anchor Adam Benigni said it “was interesting” to hear Kane pit his year in perspective. But viewers would have had to remember the cabbie incident because neither Kane nor Benigni actually mentioned it directly.
The cabbie incident damaged Kane’s reputation here, but all was probably forgiven for many local fans because of how he started the McGuire interview and how boyishly enthusiastic he was throughout the brief conversation.
Kane immediately gave a “shout out to my hometown of Buffalo” and talked about four Buffalo buddies and five family members who came to the game.
“Holy crap,” added Kane. “This is something you dream of as a kid, you score the winning goal in the Stanley Cup final.”
A public relations specialist couldn’t have helped him handle the interview any better. Okay, maybe he could have cut the “crap” line.
Earlier, NBC’s cameras caught Kane spending a good deal of time talking with former Buffalo Sabre Danny Briere --- a member of the losing Flyers -- during the traditional series-ending handshake. Buffalo fans undoubtedly had to wonder what they were talking about.
Kane was so talkative after the Cup victory that clearly there’s “not a chance, not a chance” he will ever become part of that constantly-running NHL promo in which numerous Stanley Cup winning players are so overcome with emotion during interviews that they are speechless.
pergament@msn.com
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