Evander Kane longs to reach NHL playoffs for the first time

Don’t look now, but this is Evander Kane’s sixth NHL season.
It seems like just yesterday he was playing for the Vancouver Giants and helping them win the 2007 Memorial Cup and the 2006 WHL title. Even he finds it hard to believe that he’s been in the NHL so long.
“I feel old,” he said as his Winnipeg Jets prepared to play the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday at Rogers Arena. “It’s my sixth season (in the NHL), so it’s a crazy year and it’s crazy to think that. “It feels like it’s not, but I guess time flies. It’s quite a bit of experience, but each year you learn new things and you try to become better.”
That goal has been difficult this season because of injuries that have limited his playing time and production. The 23-year-old Vancouver native was just glad to be in the lineup during a rare visit to his hometown.
“I’m healthy enough to play, so that’s probably a good thing,” he said. “We’re winning and it’s a nice change from the way it’s been in the past, being in the playoff position. We’re consistently having that feeling that the playoffs are a strong possibility. There’s so much hockey left in the season. We have to make sure we’re winning at the pace we were in the first half.”
The Jets arrived in Vancouver after suffering four consecutive losses. Kane said they have not been the same club since the all-star break, but their strong start has kept them in a playoff position.
Now, it remains to be seen whether Kane can help them make a strong playoff push and, if they get in, turn heads in the post-season. But that will also be a challenge given his health woes.
“It’s definitely not been an easy season – that’s for sure,” he said. “With the couple of injuries I had and the ongoing ones, it’s tough. But it’s part of being a professional athlete and a professional hockey player. It’s a physical sport. You’ve gotta battle through it sometimes.”
The same goes for the Jets as they try to regain the consistency which they have been lacking lately. But Kane believes they have turned the corner as far as becoming a playoff contender.
“You get sick and tired of losing and you’ve kind of got to figure it out – one way or the other – and make a decision, make up your mind as a group and as individuals,” he said. “I think we did that at the beginning of the year, and it’s paid off so far here.”
Kane knows what it’s like to win as a junior, having helped the Giants to their crowns and also winning a gold medal with Canada at the world junior championships in 2009, when he was originally cut by quickly invited back. Canucks coach Willie Desjardins was an assistant with the Canadian squad that season while still with Medicine Hat of the WHL.
“He was a very intense guy, very well prepared and really easy to talk to at the same time,” said Kane.
However, Kane has yet to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs since he was drafted fourth overall by Winnipeg’s predecessor, the Atlanta Thrashers, in 2009. The Thrashers did not qualify for the post-season while he was with them, and the Jets have not reached it since they were reincarnated in 2011.
The chance to finally get there is giving Kane plenty of inspiration as he battles through his struggles.
“You watch it sometimes after the regular season and you see the battle and just the stage that the playoffs are on,” he said. “It makes you want to be a part of that, and that’s definitely motivating for me.”
In other words, now that he is in his sixth NHL season, Kane believes it’s time for him to get in.
“I think five years going all over the place (travelling in the spring) is enough for me,” he said. “That’s a good milestone – and we’ll cut it off there.”
Note_Kane, who has 10 goals and 12 assists this season, indicated in the morning that he would play, but coach Paul Maurice later made him a healthy scratch in Winnipeg's 3-2 overtime loss to the Canucks.