Evander Kane missed game after incident with Byfuglien: reports

There's reportedly more to the Evander Kane saga than some inappropriate attire.

According to multiple reports, including CBC News, the Winnipeg forward failed to show up for the Jets' game in Vancouver this week following an incident involving teammate Dustin Byfuglien.

It wasreported that Kane missed a pre-game meeting, and thathe couldn't be reached until approximately an hour before the start of the game, when Kane answered his cellphone and said he wouldnt be playing against the Canucks.

A few hours after the reports surfaced, the Jets placed Kane on the injured-reserve list. Kane, who has been playing injured for most of the season, will miss at least the next two games.

The report also said that, earlier in the day, Kane showed up to the arena wearing a track suit instead of a suit a violation of the team's dress code and thatByfuglienlater threw those clothes into the shower.

The Winnipeg Free Press had reported that Kane was scratched because of the dress-code violation.

Kane's agent, Craig Oster, said his camp would comment on the situation Friday.

The Jets have not said why Kane missedthe Vancouver game.

Kane's benching led Maurice to put Dustin Byfuglien on forward from defence.Byfuglien said playing forward wasn't his "ideal spot,"but he'll do the job.

Kane missed practice Thursday, two days after he was absent from the game in Vancouver. Head coach Paul Maurice claimed Kane was meeting with team doctor's regarding an ailment that had bothered the forward all season.

Questions about Kane's future with the Jets have increasedsince he missed the game Tuesday. In a news conference after the game, Maurice didn't elaborate on Kane's absence stating it was a"coach's decision."

"I know that when I come out and say coach's decision that I open all of us up to a tremendous amount of speculation, and I can live with that," Maurice said.

Beyond the questions regarding his absence, Kane has been a topic of discussion recently after posting images on social media of himself talking into a stack of money like it was a cellphone and doing pushupswith a bag of cash on his back.

While none of Kane's teamates were discussing the 23-year-old, they did recognize that the rules apply to everyone.

"There's a standard that everybody needs to live up to," forward Blake Wheeler said. "We're professionals. We make a lot of money."

"We're expected to uphold a certain standard and that's the code we live by. That's just the way it is. If you don't like it, then there's other places to go. This is the way we do things."

Wheeler was also asked if breaking the rules constitutes letting down the team.

"Yeah, you don't want people breaking rules. That's just the way it goes," Wheeler said.

As for Kane's latest incident impacting his relationship with the team, Byfuglien said they're a tight group.

"It is what it is," he said. "It's just among us. It's things that we've just got to handle ourselves."

Captain Andrew Ladd was more clear.

"Whatever happens in this room, we deal with it our way and it's no one else's business pretty much," Ladd said.

The Jets currently hold a wild-card spot in the Western Conference but have lost five straight games heading into Friday's home matchup against Chicago.

Kane, 23, has 10 goals and 12 assists in 37 games this season.