Myers casting shadow over Kane

As part of their WHL Western Conference Finals coverage, The Province ran a quickie in today's edition regarding the spotlight match-up of explosive Vancouver forward Evander Kane against Kelowna's workhorse, Tyler Myers.

"I'm sure I'll be seeing him every shift I'm out there," the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Kane said of Myers, who he played with at the world juniors with Team Canada but whom he maintains he doesn't know particularly well. "It's something you have to deal with. And I enjoy playing against other top players. "He's a big guy, obviously. He has a real long stick that makes it tough to get pucks behind him. You just have to play simple with him." You could argue that Kane couldn't answer anything else, that there's no way he could say publicly he didn't want to face Myers. You could try to argue that with Kane himself, too, and you'd risk getting a punch in the nose. Kane might be the most competitive player ever to wear Giants garb. He cheers goals in practice. When he came back from the world juniors, one of the first things he said to Giants coach Don Hay was: "See, I can penalty kill" -- a reference to receiving man-short minutes at the worlds when he wasn't then getting many with Vancouver. And, as much as he's too savvy already to say it, Kane, a 48-goal man in the regular season, is well aware that his stock for this coming NHL entry draft will be helped if he shows well against Myers, a Buffalo Sabres first-rounder from last summer who looks pro-ready already. Kane has been pegged as a possible top-five selection. "I think he knows he's going to face Tyler Myers a lot and he's going to have to find ways to work through that," said Hay, who did get Kane away from the big blueliner the first two games by double-shifting him. "That's a sign of a competitive hockey player -- Evander likes that challenge."