Not a hat trick Kane should be shooting for

Alarms aren't blaring yet, and lights aren't flashing.

But enough caution flags are up that say Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane might want to consider cooling his off-ice roll.

Now, it's tough to tell any 21-year-old professional athlete how to spend his spare time, money and energy. He's having too much fun to listen.

Maybe the best way to get his attention is to point out that bright lights have ruined many promising careers, to say nothing of bank accounts, reputations, livers and long-term designs of his team.

Or maybe a better way is to mention Ben Roethlisberger.

The Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback is under investigation after a 20-year-old college student alleged that he sexually assaulted her last week at a nightclub in Georgia.

Add that to a Nevada woman accusing Roethlisberger of committing the same offense at Lake Tahoe in 2008.

The authorities will determine guilt or innocence, but it sure looks like Roethlisberger either victimized somebody or put himself in position to be victimized.

While Kane hasn't suffered similarly, indications are that he's into the night life. The wrong time, place and people could quickly land him in a bowl of Roethlisberger stew consisting of alcohol, groupies, VIP rooms, poor judgment, police and lawyers.

Shortly after Kane helped Team USA to second place in the Olympics last week the New York Post delivered the latest non-hockey news about Kane.

Wearing his Olympic jacket and silver medal in a Chelsea nightclub, Kane "stumbled into the table where (the Black Eyed Peas) were sitting and fell right into the lap of will.i.am."

Isolated, the story is sort of innocently cute - a celebrating Olympian literally bumps into a famous musical group.

Nothing referred to Kane as drunk, or that he missed Hawks curfew, or anything like that.

So let's leave it as a frat-boy pratfall. Except this wasn't the first time Kane provided cause to go, "Hmmm."

Last summer a cabdriver in his hometown of Buffalo whistled the off-duty hockey player for roughing. In January photos circulated of a shirtless Kane partying in a limo with admiring women.

Again, one by one these incidents wouldn't be a problem. Heck, perhaps collectively they aren't.

Still, three in less than a year are too many. They represent a pattern verging on a trend bordering on trouble that Kane and the Hawks don't need.

Any newspaper story that begins with "according to a spy" is suspect, so the Post might have gotten the latest supposed Kane caper wrong.

Kane's problem is that after two previous missteps it's more difficult to consider the source than the subject.

Hawks management likely spoke to Kane about avoiding further hazards. But they just as likely didn't want to suggest that a 21-year-old sports somebody quit experimenting and experiencing life.

But Kane doesn't always demonstrate appropriate discretion for a celebrity athlete.

Perhaps the model to follow is Derek Jeter, who has enjoyed a fabulous Manhattan lifestyle, earned fabulous wealth and dated fabulous women without compromising his or his team's reputation.

It's a tough balance to strike, but hopefully Patrick Kane strikes it before alarms sound.

mimrem@dailyherald.com