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Kane a lightning rod, on and off ice

Make what you want of Patrick Kane, and there’s a chance you’re right.

Say Kane is a party animal.

Might be.

Say Kane is a heckuva hockey player.

He can be.

Say Kane has some growing up to do.

Sure looks that way.

Say Kane is the key to the Blackhawks’ playoff hopes.

Certainly is among them.

Say Kane is walking a precarious line when the sun goes down.

Maybe.

Say Kane is a prime-time performer when the arena lights go on.

Was again Sunday.

Kane, the Hawks’ gifted 22-year-old winger, netted the game-winner in the Hawks’ 3-2 victory over the Penguins in the United Center.

What a move Kane put on Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury for the only score by either team in the shootout.

Kane skated in, faked one way and pulled the puck back the other way. Fleury moved one way but couldn’t recover the other way.

Game essentially over.

The desperate Hawks had earned 2 points, inspiring optimism that they still can qualify for the playoffs.

As for Kane, remember that he’s the same player who scored the goal that clinched the Stanley Cup for the Hawks last spring.

Remember also that Kane is the same person who remains controversial off the ice, justifiably or not.

We won’t recite earlier incidents involving Kane, only the most recent over the weekend.

Deadspin, the dot-com that trades in celebrity gossip/news, last week featured photos of Kane in a bar late at night.

Nothing wrong with that except that Kane missed the Hawks’ next two practices after the pictures supposedly were taken, the Deadspin implication being his absence was due to a hangover rather than the announced flu.

The whole thing came and went fast, so no harm no foul, and Kane repeatedly said, “I’m here to play hockey.”

If only it were that simple. Kane has started out, and appears to be shaping up, as an athlete who will attract attention for both the right reasons and wrong reasons.

Kane brings the former on himself by scoring big goals. He brought the latter on himself with a couple of late-night capers the past couple of years.

Someone suggested to Kane after the victory over the Penguins, “Crazy week.” And indeed it was for the Hawks.

Head coach Joel Quenneville missed all three games due to illness. Kane missed those two practices. Deadspin did its part by raising a February fuss.

Finally, Kane put the puck where it belonged to return the spotlight back where it belongs: On the Hawks’ 2 victories in three games.

“That’s probably what we’ll have to do the rest of the way, win two of three,” Kane said. “So it’s a good start.”

Still, Kane isn’t likely to stop being a target of cell-phone cameras. Some athletes are magnets for a probing lens, and once they go down that path it’s tough to U-turn back to a less eventful existence.

People don’t want them to and won’t let them.

As long as the game-winners keep coming, Kane will continue to be considered little more than a mischievous young man showing us all how to have a good time.

But Kane will have to be reassessed if the winners end or his harmless fun turns harmful to him or his team.

The Hawks play at St. Louis on Monday and it’s anybody’s guess how the latest chapter in the Patrick Kane story might read.

mimrem@dailyherald.com