So here's something you don't read every day: sultry songstress Taylor Swift once cost the Chicago Blackhawks a goal by distracting Patrick Kane.
Let that sink in for a minute. I'll wait.
Got a handle on that now? Ok, let's take a deeper look.
Kane, in the midst of his rookie NHL season under then-Hawks head coach Denis Savard, lost his man in his own zone and the opposition wound up potting the puck in the Chicago net. The story behind the goal, as told by Savard himself at the recent Blackhawks Fan Convention, via Second City Hockey, is pure gold.
"Another, rather topical story: rookie Kane lost his guy on the backcheck, leading to a goal against. Savard yelled at him that he must have been distracted, looking at two pretty blonde girls who were sitting behind the bench.
"After the game Kane was late getting to the team bus because he was talking to the same girls and got yelled at again. The next day Kane went to Savard's office to give his defense: 'You know who the two girls were? One of them was Taylor Swift.'
"Savard still didn't know who Taylor Swift was and had to ask his wife."
It's really not surprising that Kane who, fair or not, has become somewhat notorious for being distracted by a beautiful lass from time to time, would fall under the intoxicating and unavoidable spell of Swift's alluring gaze.
It's also not surprising that Kane, especially a young Kane, would be a little lax on the back-check. The elite scorer hasn't ever really been known for a strong two-way game, so adding a young and hard-to-ignore Swift to the mix only makes the story that much more believable.
While we won't be getting any sad songs about a Swift-Kane breakup anytime soon, it's still pretty fantastic to imagine Kane losing sight of the players, the ice, the rink and locking eyes with a young girl who just so happens to be Taylor Swift, in the crowd.
