Near the end of the first period, Kane attempted to lay a hard hit against Stars defenceman Alex Petrovic in between the benches, but Kane got the worst of the contact. He hobbled down the tunnel moments afterward, but later returned to the game.
Despite returning to the game, Kane ended up with less than 5 minutes of ice time last night. After the game, coach Knoblauch confirmed his reduced ice time was due to an injury, but he hopes that the time in between series will allow Kane to heal up.
If Kane took any hard contact to his abdomen, it may have re-aggravated an injury he's been dealing with all season. Just before the playoffs began, Kane revealed to the media that he's been dealing with a sports hernia for the majority of the year. Since then, he's been absent from most practices, and doing his best to push through the pain in games.
The Florida Panthers are a famously pest-like team from top to bottom, led by the ultimate pest of all in Matthew Tkachuk. When he's at his best, Evander Kane is one of the few Oilers who can really get into the mud with the opponents. Hopefully, Kane is able to heal up in this break, and can be closer to 100% for Game 1 of the Cup Final.
