Blackhawks owner disappointed but hopeful with Kane investigation

Blackhawks’ owner Rocky Wirtz has spoken on the Patrick Kane investigation.

Wirtz spoke with the Chicago Tribune:

“We’re disappointed but hopeful,” Wirtz said. “Beyond that, it would not be appropriate to expound upon.”

The Blackhawks have plenty to focus on for the upcoming season based on all of the personnel changes during the offseason that were driven by salary cap limitations.

And we are now in a phase where information is flowing but it is hard to discern fact from fiction.

The Buffalo News shared intimate details of the accusation:

Sources with knowledge of the investigation said that the young woman who has accused the hockey superstar of rape had bite marks on her shoulders and a scratch on her leg after the alleged attack.

The woman alleges that Kane invited her and a female friend to his home for a private party after they met him last Saturday night at SkyBar, a popular nightclub on Franklin Street, the sources said.

Shortly after she and her friend arrived at Kane’s home on Old Lakeshore Road, the accuser alleges that she went by herself into another room, where Kane followed her, overpowered her and raped her, the sources said.

The woman left Kane’s home with her friend and used a cellphone to call a relative immediately after the alleged attack. She then went to a local hospital for examination, and police were called afterward, the sources said.

The alleged attack occurred about 4 a.m. last Sunday, about an hour after Kane was seen leaving SkyBar.

A person who knows the woman described her as frantic and traumatized when she called her relative to report what happened.

But Paul J. Cambria, Kane’s attorney, quickly refuted the Buffalo News story while speaking with USA Today:

“There have been all sorts of statements made that are completely inaccurate,” Cambria told USA TODAY Sports. “These things are being said as if they are facts. I am not going to participate in that stuff. When the time comes, I will respond to things, but I am not going to participate at this time in this whole media thing that is going on.”

Kane is continuing on with his offseason activities.  From the Tribune:

Per league tradition, every member of the championship team — including front office staff — get to spend the day with the Stanley Cup. Wirtz long had been scheduled to have his turn Sunday, a day after Kane hosted the trophy in western New York.

With the investigation still making headlines nationwide, Kane held a quiet barbecue for friends and family Saturday at his suburban Buffalo mansion. About four dozen people were seen outside the gathering, which took place at Kane’s gated estate along Lake Erie.

Witnesses described it as a low-key affair in which the trophy had a prominent place on a patio table and children played in the backyard. A valet wearing a Blackhawks cap was parking cars as guests arrived.

Kane — who has taken the Stanley Cup to children’s hospitals and his favorite pizza place in past years — made no public appearances with the trophy. The Hawks did not release any details about the 26-year-old winger’s activities Saturday, though a Hockey Hall of Fame spokeswoman said players typically have the trophy from 9 a.m. until midnight on their assigned day.

More is certainly still to come on this story.  We certainly hope it is not true.