Patrick Kane Archives

Does Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville have a background cracking safes?  The man behind the Hawks bench has more line-up combinations than you would find at a Chicago police station.  The latest move to split up Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane appears to be a major score.

As they entered the NHL together two seasons ago, conventional wisdom paired the duo of Toews and Kane as life partners for the Blackhawks.  They would develop a bond as linemates allowing them to compete as one for a decade or more.  For the moment, Quenneville has seperated his talented young core.  For what purpose?

The simple answer is that Coach Q needed to spread out his talent.  Without the services of Marian Hossa for a couple of months, the Hawks need their top two lines to be equal offensive threats.  After two games, the decision is a rousing success.

The combination of Kane, Dave Bolland and Dustin Byfuglien was a dominating force in Finland.  It's only two games in, but Kane may be ready to take his game to an elite level.  You can also see the confidence oozing from Big Buff.  The converted defenseman has bought in to his role of creating havoc down low in the offensive zone.  The line plays with high energy and has been a literal hit for Quenneville.

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are teammates on the Chicago Blackhawks and two of the NHL's rising young stars.  For the supposed best friends, that's where the similarities end.  Toews and Kane have become Felix and Oscar.  The two NHL All-Stars have morphed into quite The Odd Couple.

One can imagine Toews cleaning the table of beer cans and pizza boxes while Kane pops open another and returns to playing NHL '10.  Toews, always the responsible one, will make certain no bills go unpaid.  On the other hand, Kane is only responsible for making sure Jonathan has a little fun once in awhile.  A match made in reality show heaven.

The two young Hawks have once again displayed their differences on the eve of the new NHL season.  Both Toews and Kane where recently asked about the Blackhawks' expectations for the upcoming season by NHL.com.

"It's probably (Stanley) Cup or bust this year, and that's what we want," Kane said. "I think you've got to play for those expectations. The better you get, the more the expectations are going to grow. Expectations are probably to the ceiling, but that's the way it should be. That's the way we want it."

Patrick Kane and his cousin, James Kane, pled guilty to charges of disorderly conduct on Thursday in a Buffalo courtroom.  Both of the Kanes where given conditional discharges.  The one condition - write an apology letter to cab driver Jan Radecki.  In doing so, the pair will receive no further punishment provided they stay out of trouble for the next year.

"Obviously, I'm in a little different situation than most kids at this age, but at the same time I think it's definitely been a learning lesson and something I want to move forward on," Kane told City Court Judge Thomas Amodeo according to the Associated Press. "It's maybe better I learn it now than later in life."

The Chicago Blackhawks forward was with his parents as he read a brief statement outside of court apologizing to all for the regrettable circumstances.  Once again, Kane decided not to answer reporters questions.

By pleading guilty, the NHL All-Star is accepting some responsibility for the events on that early Sunday morning in Buffalo.  We may never know the exact details, but Kane's actions appear to have crossed the line over what would be deemed acceptable behavior by someone who is locked in a cab.

The Patrick Kane saga has become the story that will not go away.  Is it really movie of the week material?  It's the result of making news in August, a month where crickets can be heard chirping around the rest of the NHL.

Arrested during the season?  Nothing a hat trick a couple nights later won't fix.  In trouble earlier in the summer?  The Chicago Blackhawks front office would cover that up with their own soap opera.

A week after being involved in a cab far dispute in his hometown of Buffalo, Kane is still the subject of keyboard artists across the country.  Funny enough, the frenzy has dissipated in the Chicago media.

CSNPhilly.com posted an article on Saturday recaping the entire Blackhawks off-season with an emphasis on Kane's adventures.  Link included, but really nothing there you do not already know.  What, they ran out of things to say about the Eagles signing of Michael Vick?

The Buffalo News reported Tuesday afternoon that Patrick Kane's attorney, Paul Cambria Jr., is saying that he has evidence that will completely clear his client of charges of robbery and assault of a cab driver early Sunday morning.
Cambria said that he will ask that the felony hearing scheduled for Monday in Buffalo be rescheduled until later in the week. That could stop Kane from attending next week's U. S. Olympic Orientation Camp at Seven Bridges Ice Rink in Woodridge, where he would be certain to be deluged by Chicago media.
"When all of this is put into perspective, it's going to appear vastly different than the first impression," he said.

Just a week left before the Blackhawks convention puts a serious strain on the available alcohol resources in the Loop.

So there is no time like the present to start jotting down those sobering questions you might forget later in a vodka/whiskey/beer/scotch/schnapps haze to ask Rocky Wirtz, John McDonough, Dale Tallon, Joel Quenneville or your player of choice.

Stream of consciousness questioning has always been one of my strengths, because you never need to focus longer than it takes to down a shot and you expect to be lied to. And you can always make up your own answers if you don't like the stammers you get.

Let's begin with some scattershot queries that should pepper the proceedings at the convention.

If you tried to sign back unrestricted free agent Nikolai Khabibulin right up until the last minute when he took more money and years to go to Edmonton, what is it that scares the hell out of you about goalie Cristobal Huet as the primary guy?

 

EA Sports officially introduced the Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane as as the cover athlete for NHL 10 on Monday at a press conference in Toronto.

"This year, we made a conscious decision to partner with a player we thought would resonate well both in Canada and in the U.S. market," said David Le, senior product manager of EA's NHL franchise. "We think the Chicago Blackhawks are a tremendous organization with a lot of positive momentum behind them.  We're also crossing our fingers for Patrick and hope that he is a big part of the U.S. Olympic team next year. He's an elite player and a franchise guy in a fantastic U.S. city with a rich hockey history."

At the age of 20, Kane becomes the youngest athlete to appear on the cover of EA's NHL franchise.  He is also only the second U.S. born player to appear on the cover.

"To be a young American kid in an American city ... the team is so young and we're recapturing hockey in Chicago. This just adds to it," Kane said. "We had a great year as a team, and this is pretty special in its own regard. You hear things like second American on the cover, youngest player ... you take a few steps back and it humbles you."

NHL 10 is due in retail stores this September.

The biggest lack of depth on the Blackhawks prospects chart appears to be at center. With that as my only compass entering the tangled forest that's called the 2009 National Hockey League mock draft, I choose center Drew Shore as Chicago's first-round draft pick.

The Hawks get the frightening chance to agree with me on Friday when the two-day draft begins in Montreal.

Shore is an all-American boy from Denver with an altar-boy face that will look perfect next to Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Shore, 18, has been playing on the U. S. National Team's Development Program and is headed for Denver University. He had 14 goals, 23 assists in 54 games in 2008-09.

Since budding pro athletes are now critiqued for how adeptly they crawl out of the cradle, Shore has already received his share of criticism. Too soft. Not fast enough as a skater. Is deceiving us all by looking like a player when he really isn't. Really should have been named for Dinah Shore. All that in a few short years.

At 6-foot-2, 190 lbs., Shore has the size if not the physical presence to be considered a guy who could mature into a more impact player than you see now. Shore says he believes that he can emulate San Jose's Joe Thornton, who has 265 goals, 577 assists over 836 games and 12 goals, 41 assists in 76 playoff games.

I say, buddy, I'd sure like to see that. Come on over to Chicago and prove it. I'll even tell you who Dinah Shore was.

The NHL playoffs have been jammed with exciting play, raging comebacks, skateoff game winners, alluring personal stories, the rediscovery of the lost city in Chicago and generally solid, intense, captivating hockey.

But the TV broadcasts and the haphazard manner in which hockey is presented, explained, discussed and laid out on the broad canvas still leaves most viewers wanting more. Much, much more, even after ratings showed some advances this year in audience viewing in the United States and apparently a little dropoff in Canada.

Selling the game on the most influential communications medium in the world besides the Internet continues to stump the National Hockey League bosses. The season ended Friday night, as always, with another unsatisfying postseason from the myriad broadcast outlets.

Personally, I would take frog-throated Gary Thorne any day over the high-pitched squeals of Mike Emrick for play-by-play. Actually, I'd prefer taking Pat Foley over both of them as the national voice of hockey.

But the league and networks of choice in their shortsighted wisdom haven't been smart enough to bring him into the picture. So we may as well argue more winnable points.

Maybe I'm late to the party on this one, but it appears Patrick Kane may be on the cover of EA Sports NHL '10 due out this October.  No official word from EA and, yes, it could be just a photoshop.  The photo was found on Gamefly through a simple search of NHL '10.

I'm a gamer who could care less about whose on the cover.  It's the goods on the disc that count.  Yeah, it's cool, but I don't display my games on the wall.

It's also not so much about Kane (some would argue it should be Toews), but rather the uniform he's wearing.  For the Blackhawk sweater to be prominent in a marketing campaign geared at the younger generation, says a lot about the rise of a franchise that a couple of years ago was ranked as the worst in sports.

If this is indeed true, it will be nice to see the Indian Head logo used in a national advertising campaign.  John McDonough can't exactly take credit for this one, but it would be a nice coup indeed. 

The way outsiders view you either can be important or it can be totally beside the point.

Who cares what you think? Well, usually, everybody.

So I went in search Monday of a NHL source and talent evaluator who is currently working in the league to ask how he would perceive the Blackhawks' top priorities this offseason.

His top two focuses didn't include re-signing Martin Havlat, the team's top scorer last season and in the playoffs. Havlat finished fifth priority overall in his evaluation. The source thinks the Blackhawks should use their money more wisely in his view or the recession could hit them next season.

"They can't put themselves in a position where a team can submit an offer sheet next year to (Jonathan) Toews, (Patrick) Kane or (Duncan) Keith,'' the source said. "They have to be sure they've got them locked up.

"And it's going to cost them $5 to $6 million each for the two kids. That's where the market is now for guys like them. They're not going to come without a big cost and Chicago can't spend a lot of money in their cap situation. They've gotten themselves in a bind."

Now, the spirit of competition flows in the offseason as much as on ice. So there might be an occasional slash or misconduct from this anonymously sourced analysis, but the source was adamant about solidifying the status of Toews, Kane and Keith with contracts ahead of re-signing unrestricted free agent Havlat and his valuable offensive talents.

And, oh yeah, laying hands on a big, stay-at-home defenseman with attitude also supercedes Havlat, he contended.

"Havlat could get a three or four-year offer from other teams for as much as $3-$5 million," the source said. "The Hawks have enough goal scorers. They have to bring in a defenseman who will be a stay-at-home guy. You can't pay everybody."

When Patrick Kane shoots, good things happen. His hat trick, capped by a third goal that finished Vancouver in a 7-5 Blackhawks victory was masterful. His sweeping backhand put the exclamation point on a roller-coaster game in which the Hawks were up, down and finally got over the top to reach the Western Conference finals.

But even Kane's skillful goal in the first period was offset by what he said about it at the intermission.

"I was looking for a pass, but they gave me all the room in the world,'' Kane said.

That has been one of Kane's deficiencies. He sometimes looks too often for the pass when he should use the slick stick-handling abilities he showed going past both the blue line and Canucks defenseman Mattias Ohlen, who appeared to think Kane was going to dump the puck like all those Blackhawk teams of old.

Kane had no choice but to shoot when a pass behind the goal by Troy Brouwer jumped past Canucks defensemen and landed on Kane's stick. He emerged on the right side of the net to stuff it past beleaguered goalie Roberto Luongo, who was beseiged most of the game.

Just like 1992, when a Game 1 Stanley Cup final victory raised Blackhawk hopes too high, eventually resulting in Pittsburgh winning the next four games, a 3-1 Chicago lead in the second period proved a fleeting moment of elation.

Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was less than stellar again as he allowed a bad line change by the Hawks to result in a Daniel Sedin goal past his glove and then permitted Shane O'Brien to utilize a screen to get the 3-3 tying goal past him.

The Hawks need to seriously re-examine their goaltending situation if they expect to be a championship-contending team year after year. The inconsistent, often off-balance Khabibulin is not the answer.

It was also predictable that the recently-praised Dustin Byfuglien let all the hoopla go to his head, reaching out to slug a Canuck for a stupid third-period penalty. Byfuglien had indeed had his glorious moments, but he is far from a finished product.

As Comcast color analyst Steve Konroyd said in pre-game comments, Byfuglien needs to hire a personal trainer and a personal chef to stop himself from ballooning to Rocky Wirtz proportions in the offseason.

But the Hawks' youthful enthusiasm and energy has them in the Final Four. They now need to be savvy (pardon the expression, Denis Savard) to get to the championship round.