After (relatively) slow start, Patrick Kane picking up the pace

DENVER — When discussing Patrick Kane’s season so far, it’s important to note that a humdrum season for the Blackhawks star would be a career season for all but a handful of players in the NHL.

So a little more than a week ago, when Kane was sheepishly lamenting the fact that his goal-scoring was way down and that the points were a little harder to come by, and that he wasn’t entirely happy with his game, it was worth nothing that he was second in the league in scoring at the time.

That’s how high Kane raised the bar last year with his 46-goal, 106-point season, which earned him the scoring title and the Hart Trophy as league MVP.

“It’s easy to judge your game on numbers, and I think we all do that, whether we want to or not,” Kane said at the time. “At the same time, I think its better for me to judge [my play] on the scoring chances I’m creating, and how much I have the puck, and if I’m creating on more shifts than not. There’s definitely room for improvement, and hopefully we’ll see that as the season goes along here.”

Sure enough, Kane has shifted back up from very good to really good again, and is starting to look like the guy who spent 82 games toying with nearly every team in the league last season. Entering Tuesday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, Kane had three goals and seven assists in his previous six games. And he was coming off his best performance of the season, a two-goal effort in a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild in which he played an eye-popping 27 minutes and fired a career-high 12 shots on goal.

Lately, Kane has been more daring offensively, deferring a little less to Artemi Panarin and bringing back the bold dangles and creative moves that have marked much of his career. He still has just 14 goals through 46 games, but he’s back over a point per game with 47 points. And the dip in goal production isn’t for a lack of trying — Kane, once the consummate playmaker and passer, is fourth in the league with 160 shots on goal.

“You see the way he played [against Minnesota], the puck was just following him,” Jonathan Toews said. “Once he got it, he just didn’t give it up. Twelve shots on net. I don’t know how many legitimate scoring chances he had, but it had to be quite a few. I think he was back to his old form, for sure.”

Good thing, too, because with Toews still struggling and Marian Hossa cooling off, the Hawks once again have been a one-line team. Panarin, Artem Anisimov and Kane are the only trio giving the Hawks a chance in some games.

But Kane always says that he’s never satisfied with his game, and that’s especially true after last season. Now that he knows he can be a 40-goal and 100-point guy, he expects to be. And so far this season, despite trailing only Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby (who has a 2015-16 Kane-like 50 points in just 37 games) and Evgeni Malkin, Kane hasn’t been producing at that rate.

But if he can keep scoring the way he has over the past six games, he could once again threaten 100 points, if not 40 goals. And while Kane doesn’t want to be defined solely by his numbers, they’re nice to have, all the same.

“I don’t know [if I’m at that level yet],” Kane said. “You still want to produce more and create more every night you’re out there. So sometimes you look at the season as a whole, and that’s not the way to go about it. You just try to take it a game at a time and keep improving.”

Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com

Twitter: @marklazerus