Don Cherry started by saying he’s an Evander Kane fan, has been since the start.

Hockey Night in Canada’s resident rabble-rouser says he was even in Kane’s corner after the Jets forward posted the infamous money photo during the NHL lockout: Kane standing on a Las Vegas balcony, holding wads of bills and pretending to make a cash call to boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr..

“I was the one that stuck up for him,” Cherry said. “I said, ‘Look he’s just a kid havin’ fun.’ He’s only 21 years old. But he’s gotta straighten out a little. You can’t be a loose canon in hockey. You can in football and you can in basketball, but not in hockey.”

Cherry, on the eve of a flight to Winnipeg for Friday’s Jets-Pittsburgh game — his only trip to Winnipeg this season — wasn’t sticking up for Kane, Thursday, though.