How Sharks teammates reacted to Kane’s 21-game suspension originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Sharks forward Evander Kane was suspended 21 games Monday by the NHL for violating the league’s COVID-19 protocols by submitting a fake vaccination card. He won’t be eligible to play for San Jose until Nov. 30 at the earliest.
On Tuesday, several members of the Sharks reacted to the news. Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, for one, did not hold back.
Vlasic, on Kane: “He put himself in this situation. He has personal stuff to handle; on our side, we’ll concentrate on hockey.” (HT @SO_Lorange):
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 19, 2021
The question now is, does Kane have a path to return to the Sharks’ locker room?
“We’ll see once the suspension is over,” Vlasic said. “I’m not in a position to say if there is or there isn’t. My job is to help the team win on the ice.”
Kane is not appealing the suspension and he will not count against the salary cap while suspended. Captain Logan Couture and coach Bob Boughner both said they have not spoken with Kane since the suspension was announced.
The veteran forward has not been around the team since the start of San Jose’s training camp on Sept. 22 by mutual agreement while he was under multiple NHL investigations.
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“Since day one, we’ve really kept our focus on the job at hand, and that’s getting through training camp and getting our structure and details down, and then obviously the start of our season,” Boughner said. “We haven’t sat there and had a team meeting or a team talk about it. Really, we’re just worried about the 23 guys that we have here and try and win as many hockey games as we can.”
The Sharks opened the regular season with a 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday at SAP Center. They face the Canadiens on Tuesday in Montreal.