Evander Kane accused of a cheap shot in his first game back in the NHL.

On Saturday night controversial National Hockey League star Evander Kane made his season debut with the Edmonton Oilers, a team that took a significant risk when they signed him to a new contract just 2 days earlier.

The Oilers gave Kane, who recently had a long term and lucrative contract with the San Jose Sharks terminated after a tumultuous offseason and rumors of problems in the locker room, a 1 year deal worth $2,108,696 and early on it looks like that deal may have paid off for the Oilers. In Kane's very first game with the Oilers he picked up a goal in the first period of play, although admittedly he did it against a very lackluster Montreal Canadiens team that has only won 8 games all season and one that had Samuel Montembeault in net, a goaltender that typically struggles even at the American Hockey League level.

Nonetheless it was a good debut for Kane who finished the night with 1 goal and no assists for 1 point on the scoresheet and plus minus rating of +2, but some keen observers also noticed something else that did not show up on the score sheet. On social media an account called "NHL_Review", an account that is often critical of the NHL's controversial Department of Player Safety pointed out an incident later in the game that appeared to show the ugly side of what Kane can bring to the table.

During the opening minutes of the second period Kane appeared to throw an elbow at the head of young Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki, one that went uncalled on the ice and one that received no mention on the NHL broadcast. Although the cameras did not do a very good job of catching the incident, you can still see Kane delivering what looks very much like an elbow to the head of Suzuki during the play.

Here's a short clip of that sequence:

If you zoom in you lose a great deal of image quality, but the image that produces also leaves little doubt as to what Kane was up to during the play.

Here's a look at the close up:

Perhaps I am naive, but I would have expected Kane to tread carefully after being unceremoniously cut from the Sharks, and after spending most of the NHL season either on the sidelines or in the AHL. It seems that will not be the case.