POST-GAME: Kane impactful against Kraken in return from injury

EDMONTON, AB - It's good to have you back, Kaner.
Even after making his long-awaited return to the Oilers lineup after missing 10 weeks with a serious wrist injury, Evander Kane stood in front of the media post-game on Tuesday night sweating his missed opportunities in a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken that extended Edmonton's win streak to four games -- all over Pacific Division opponents.
That attitude, expectation and swagger are just three of the laundry list of intangibles that Kane brings every night that the Oilers and Oil Country have dearly missed.
"It felt fine," Kane said post-game about his wrist. "No issues tonight other than my finish."
"I guess I can't expect too much, but yeah, we had some looks. The team played well. We got two points against a really good team and I had my looks tonight, which was a positive and I'll just try to build off that."

Luckily for him, the chances and opportunities were there all night with three high-danger scoring chances and seven shots that went hand-in-hand with his five hits and 17:09 of ice time -- 3:12 of which was split between the power play and penalty kill. Only Warren Foegele (four) had more high-danger chances than Kane on the evening, while his shots and hits were both team-highs.
Head Coach Jay Woodcroft wasted no time throwing the 31-year-old right back into the thick of it and marvelled post-game at the impact and effort that the dynamic winger was able to put forward in Tuesday's win without having any competitive game action for over two months.
"I thought he played a heck of a game tonight," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "I mean, you look at his shots, you look at his finished checks, you look at his time on ice for somebody that's missed that amount of hockey, and to step right into when we're in mid-season form… he makes us a better team."
"He slots people in the right kind of slots. I used him in every avenue of the game. He played short-handed, he played on the power play, and he was dynamite five-on-five, so I thought it was a very good start for him to come back into that game."

For Zach Hyman, it didn't look like Kane had skipped any sort of beat after playing like his dynamic self after more than two months on the shelf.
"It's not easy, he missed 30 something games, two-and-a-half months, " Hyman said about his teammate. "He came back earlier than I think everybody expected. Credit to him for putting in all that work and he didn't look at a place at all, didn't look any different. He just looked himself."
While Kane might rue his own missed chances individually, what he enjoyed the most about the victory was his team's success on both sides of the puck at five-on-five after all of Edmonton's goals came at even strength and the defence cracked down on the Kraken's offensive opportunities.
"We knew they were a team that scored a lot five-on-five," he said. "I think they lead the league, so limiting them with their chances and then obviously outplaying them in their own end and being able to put some by their goalie I thought was a real positive for the team, especially here on home ice."

The 31-year-old said Monday that he was coming back with no excuses after spending 31 games out of the lineup with a cut wrist sustained in the second period of a 3-2 win on Nov. 8 over the Tampa Bay Lightning, who represent the Oilers next opponent when the Blue & Orange try to make it five in a row on Thursday night at Rogers Place.
With plenty of opportunities to work on his physical shape, skating and everything else while rehabbing his wrist, Kane took that statement to heart throughout the process to return to the lineup in what he feels is better condition than when he joined the Oilers as a free agent around this time last campaign.
"I mean, let's put it this way, I felt a lot better tonight than I did when I came in here last year for my first game," he said.
"Looking forward to Thursday night."