Was Patrick Kane the reason for changes to the proposed 24-team NHL Tournament?

It sure as heck feels like we are on the verge of sports returning this Summer and the latest news has the NHL possibly playing a proposed 24-team Tournament to determine a winner.

While teams vote on that proposed tournament, some interesting information has come out about the worries the tournament could provide and it’s not what you think. With the proposed format, it would include the Chicago Blackhawks as the No. 12 seed. The original best-of-3 format has been in question because of a few key players. One of those players? Patrick Kane.

While appearing on Sportsnet 590’s “Lead Off”Sportsnet 590’s “Lead Off”, Elliotte Friedman revealed that the initial plan was to play a best-of-3 play-in round which would pit the Edmonton Oilers against the Chicago Blackhawks.

However, Edmonton wanted nothing to do with taking on “Showtime” and the rest of the Blackhawks:

“I did hear that the Western teams – and now it’s going to be Edmonton – they were like, ‘two out of three with Patrick Kane? I mean come on,'” Friedman said on the show.

In the East, players were concerned about a certain Canadiens goalie stealing a series. “Pittsburgh looked at its matchup and it said ‘two out of three against Carey Price is not fair for a team that had zero percentage points to play in the playoffs,” Friedman said.

For as bad as the Blackhawks have been this season, it’s damn good to know that they still strike fear into some opponents. And yeah, they should be scared of this:

And boy I hope this happens.