Patrick Kane looks like he’s having fun and is fully healthy right now, which is a great thing for the Red Wings…
And The Athletic’s Max Bultman happens to have penned a late-night column in which he ruminates upon the above-listed topic that is #88’s resurgent mid-season performance:
Kane’s 36 now, and the days of him taking games over every single night may be in the past. But he still sees the ice like few ever have. And when he gets going, it’s something to behold.
Friday was a clinic in that. It started with him gliding through the neutral zone, beating his first man and then setting up Alex DeBrincat to open the scoring. Then it was Kane keeping a possession alive on the power play, disrupting a Chicago breakout, coming up with the puck and turning it into a three-on-one that Raymond finished off early in the second period.
But the real work of art was on Detroit’s third goal, at a moment when the game still felt perilously up for grabs. The Red Wings had dominated the second period but went into the third up just a goal. That’s when Kane took over, hanging onto the puck as he knifed across the offensive zone. There were four Blackhawks back, and no plays to be made. So, he waited until there was.
“He has unreal poise with the puck,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “There’s traffic, there’s people going everywhere, and guys are taking runs at him, and he’s just so calm. He can hold it a little longer, and while he’s doing that, he’s seeing things.”
That certainly applied here. Kane stickhandled and created space until defenseman Erik Gustafsson was alone up at the point. Then Gustafsson walked it in — making a couple of slick moves of his own to beat a defender and drag Petr Mrazek out of position — and then found Andrew Copp out front for a key insurance goal.
“That was all Patty Kane,” McLellan said. “Just slowing things down and creating opportunities for teammates.”
Continued (paywall)
