Evander Kane tries jumping Zdeno Chara, immediately regrets decision
Feb 26, 2019; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara (33) fights with San Jose Sharks left wing Evander Kane (9) during the third period at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
His team may have packed it in once they found themselves trailing in what finished as a 4-1 loss in Boston, Sharks forward Evander Kane was very much looking for trouble all night.
It was pretty much the same thing the Bruins dealt with when they squared off against Kane and the Sharks just a week ago, according to some Bruins players. And this time around, he found some in the second frame when he tuned up B’s fourth-liner Sean Kuraly in a brief melee.
But he truly found it in the third period in the aftermath of a high hit from Zdeno Chara, too, prompting Kane to feel brave enough to jump the 6-foot-9 Boston captain from behind and start wildly swinging with Chara unable to defend himself.
“It’s something that happens during games,” Chara said of getting jumped by Kane. “It’s a physical game, maybe some frustration on his part, I’m not sure, I can’t really speak for him.
“Just bracing myself for a check and it just happened.”
“If you’re going to fight him, that’s the way to do it,” Bruins winger Brad Marchand said of Kane’s tactics. “Not a guy you want to square off with, but obviously a very tough man and a very scary man.”
But the tables quickly turned in Chara’s favor, as he picked himself up from the ice and found himself throwing head-on with Kane.
It was a bold strategy on the part of Kane, who was later thrown out of the game from the penalty box for his critiques of the officials, and then complained to the media that he felt he was the victim of a ‘classic headshot’ by Chara, and one he likely regretted once Chara hauled himself back to his feet.
“Obviously Kane didn’t like [the hit] and went after him, Zee obliged him and they went to the box and they moved on, right?” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the win. “Not usually Zee is the one that gets challenged, but obviously that has something to do with a hit or something previously in the game. I think Zee came out of it fine, and the other guy didn’t as much, got tossed, so frustrated a little bit. And that was that, to me.”
A frustrated Kane met with the media sporting a cut on his nose and some slight face swelling, speaking to the impact an angry Chara, even just one month away from his 42nd birthday, can have when throwing bombs.
But that’s the cost of trying to take Big Z down when he’s swinging with an Infinity Gauntlet, as it turns out.
DeBrusk on Kane fighting Chara: “Tough [for Kane] when you go up against Thanos like that.”
— Ty Anderson (@_TyAnderson) February 27, 2019
