Sharks return to Winnipeg with villains in tow
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Evander Kane isn’t expecting Justin Braun, Tomas Hertl and Tim Heed to receive the full Winnipeg treatment Tuesday night. The local fan base will be zeroing in on a bigger villain.
The Sharks are in town to play the Jets for the first time since January 2018 when videotape surfaced showing Braun, Hertl and Heed tape criticizing Winnipeg for being “cold” and “dark” and technologically primitive. It also will be the first visit in a Sharks uniform for Kane, who is public enemy No. 1 here.
“They’re lucky that I’m on the team,” Kane said, referring to Braun, Hertl and Heed. “Everyone is going to be focused on me instead.
“You’re welcome,” he said in one last reference to his three San Jose teammates. As the Sharks traveled through Eastern Canada in January 2018, it became obvious that San Jose is one of Canada’s favorite hockey teams. The Sharks roster is loaded with Team Canada alumni, and players such as Joe Thornton and Brent Burns, with their colorful personalities and iconic facial hair, are treated like rock stars.
But the good feelings evaporated soon after the Sharks 4-1 loss in Winnipeg on Jan. 7. A promotional video produced by NBC Sports California in which Sharks players were asked to name the worst NHL city surfaced online and quickly went viral in Winnipeg.
Hertl called Winnipeg “dark and cold.” Braun questioned whether the city has access to Wi-Fi. Heed, who’d yet to make an NHL trip to Winnipeg, also got coaxed into blasting the city. Over the next few days, the Sharks took heat from fans on Twitter, media personalities on the radio and Jets head coach Paul Maurice. Even Mayor Brian Bowman jumped into the fray, mocking the Sharks by posting a tutorial on how to connect an iPhone to Wi-Fi on Twitter.
Braun is preparing to feel the wrath of Jets fans Tuesday night. The mildmannered defenseman regrets that he tried “using sarcasm for the first time” while answering questions for a promotional video shot four months prior to the 2018 game in Winnipeg.
“I’m sure they haven’t forgotten it,” Braun said. “It’s still unfortunate. It wasn’t my intention to upset people. I tried to be funny and it didn’t go over well.”
But Andrew “Hustler” Paterson, a radio host on TSN 1290 in Winnipeg, doesn’t think Jets fans will be focused on that Tuesday night.
“The vast majority of people have for-
gotten about it,” Paterson said. “They might remember that it was the Sharks, but I don’t think that they would remember that it was Braun or Tomas Hertl.
“The far bigger story will be, we get a chance to see Erik Karlsson for the first time with the Sharks and these could definitely be two teams that are playing for the Western Conference championship in the spring.”
Karlsson’s status for the game is uncertain as he continues to fight a lower-body injury that has kept him out of the last four games.
But Kane will be on the ice and, as he suggested, the fans will be targeting him in his third trip to the city since his tumultuous divorce from the Jets in 2015.
“That is the most Evander thing ever to say,” Paterson quipped. “But he isn’t wrong,”
Kane’s history as Winnipeg’s biggest sports villain began in 2012 when he posted a picture on Instagram that showed him holding a stack of cash up to
his ear in Las Vegas. At the time, businesses in downtown Winnipeg were struggling because of an NHL lockout and Kane’s Floyd Mayweather act made him look out of touch with the blue-collar city he played in.
In 2015, he added to his history, by showing up at a team meeting wearing a tracksuit. After the meeting, Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien reportedly tossed Kane’s tracksuit in a cold tub, setting the stage for his trade to Buffalo one week later.
In January 2016, when Kane made his first visit to Winnipeg as a member of the Buffalo Sabres, the Jets held an unofficial “tracksuit night” where fans dressed up in Adidas and held big wads of Monopoly money against their ears like phones.
Kane is embracing the idea of playing the villain role again in Winnipeg. He put together one of his best games of the season when the Jets visited San Jose on Dec. 23, scoring a goal and picking up an assist while recording 10 shots against his former team.
“I don’t know too many guys who don’t get motivated by getting booed,” Kane said. “It’s something you enjoy when it does happen.”
That sounds like the Kane that Paterson got to know during the power forward’s tenure with the Jets from 2011-15.
“Kane is perfect for this,” Paterson said. “When he finishes up his career, he could be the perfect heel in wrestling. He’s got personality, he drips with self confidence. He can have a little bit of fun with things like that. He’d way rather have that than people not be paying attention to him.”
Though Kane will likely monopolize the spotlight of enmity Tuesday, don’t be surprised if Jets fans devise a fun chant to direct at Braun, Heed and Hertl. Winnipeg is notorious for heckling opponents with creative chants. The crowd once chanted “Crosby’s better” at Alex Ovechkin during a Washington Capitals game in Winnipeg. After Team USA lost to Canada in the gold medal game at the 2010 Winter Olympics, fans chanted “silver medal” at American goalie Ryan Miller. When the Sharks came to Winnipeg in 2015 with four alternate captains, they chanted “Who’s your captain?” at Thornton, who had been stripped of “The C” the previous summer.
The crowd serenaded Kane with chants of “best trade ever” on tracksuit night in 2016.