McKnight: Kane Suffered Wrist Injury During Season
By Connor McKnight-
CHICAGO (CBS) A mere two days after speaking to the media for the first time all summer, Patrick Kane arrived at the Blackhawks Convention Friday with a brace on his left wrist. Kane's arrival to the convention was preceded by a press release from the Blackhawks stating that he'd injured his wrist in during his off-season training.
The release went on to say Kane will have surgery Tuesday to "repair a scaphoid fracture." There's a 6-8 week recovery phase then, after that, Kane should be cleared for training camp with no long-term effects anticipated.
"It's surgery time, I guess," Kane said. "But--good news is--I'll be back for training camp. It's good to get it fixed now."
The injury, however, wasn't one that he incurred during the off-season. Head coach Joel Quenneville said the wrist had bugged Kane in the second-to-last game of the season and that he'd endured through the post-season.
Kane admitted the same: "It was one of those things that kind of bothered me in the playoffs a little bit. We checked it out; there was no fracture. I knew something was wrong so I'm guessing working out and maybe skating and shooting pucks put more pressure on it."
It does seem like Kane aggravated the injury while training.
"It was one of those things that was kind of bothering me for a while. I think, probably, lifting and those sorts of things didn't help it."
The surgery comes as bit of a blow to Kane who insists that he made an effort to dedicate his summer to off-season training. By his own admission--and that of his coaches and teammates--Kane does seem to be carrying more muscle but insists that his focus is to stay "lean and cut" in hopes that will help him through the coming season.
"I put a lot of time and effort in this summer to try and get myself to where I need to be," Kane said. "I told a lot of people that I'm going to try and make that next step next year. That's something I'm still intending on doing."
