When I was growing up, there were four leagues that ruled over the greater sports fiefdom. There was the NFL, the MLB, the NBA, and the NHL. That was it. That was the pinnacle of sport. In the two some odd decades that have come since, the NHL has slid further and further away from their place of preeminence in the sports pantheon. NASCAR and the PGA make as good or better pitches for being at the top of sports than the NHL does, at least recently.

Why is that? Is the NHL unpopular because people simply don't care about it? Or do people not care about it simply because it's unpopular? Ever the optimist, at least where it concerns the NHL, I'm going to work under the assumption that it is the latter. This is going somewhere; bear with me.

What the NHL is missing, at least by my estimation, is a really good controversy. The NFL has a constant rotation of clowns who routinely penetrate the headlines with their trials, suspensions, and various gaffes. The MLB has been slowly leaking their roidheads for years now, garnering headlines every time they do. LeBron steps on a crack in the sidewalk and ESPN sends a camera crew to see whether his mother broke her back. What does the NHL have? Sean Avery? Feh.

That's why I think Patrick Kane has done the NHL a great service by getting arrested in Buffalo on Sunday. If you hadn't heard, Kane and his cousin allegedly punched a cab driver in the face because he tried to stiff them on 20 cents change. He is being charged with second-degree robbery, fourth-degree criminal mischief, and theft of services. This is the kind of story we haven't gotten out of the NHL in forever. For the NHL to get front page headline during the season is rare enough, but having one in the off-season is almost completely unheard of.

It's a pretty big sacrifice for Kane, who has been widely regarded as one of the future faces of the league. He and Jonathan Toews were the head of the spear that propelled the Chicago Blackhawks to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since the days of Jeremy Roenick and Chris Chelios. Kane has been widely regarded as a throw-back player, who has been able to compete at the highest levels of competition despite the fact that he's pretty undersized. He's made such a splash that he made the cover of NHL 10 -- at least assuming they don't yank that out from under him.

With some luck, the media can turn Kane from a bright-faced and talented youth into a spoiled, entitled redneck from Buffalo who punches innocent old men in the face over $.20 when he makes millions a year. It'll be devastating for Kane's career, but the NHL could really use a good polarizing figure to get them back in the headlines in a sustained way.

Good on you, kid!

Follow Chris Chester on Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrisbchester

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