Even before the Blackhawks’ offense evaporated entirely in Monday’s shutout loss, Patrick Kane saw the writing on the wall for his points streak.
He had relied on meaningless goals with the score already out of hand to preserve the streak against the Avalanche through the home-and-home series, extending it to 15 consecutive games. And Kane tallied just one point in each of the last five games after recording multipoint outings several times in November.
“It was a good run,” he said Monday. “I [could] see the chances were fading the last few games and that maybe it was going to end here soon. I hadn’t really been generating as much as I want to.”
In the end, Kane’s streak produced 24 points — 11 goals and 13 assists — and lasted 28 days, starting with the overtime loss at the Kings on Nov. 2 and finishing in Denver on Saturday.
It’s the longest streak in the NHL this season, even though it’s only the third-longest of Kane’s career. He had a 20-game streak last season and enjoyed a historic 26-game run in 2015-16, the league’s longest since 1993.
Still, Kane hasn’t had many better months in his prolific career than this November. He was named the NHL’s Third Star of the Month and is now tied for eighth in the league in points, with 33 (with Artemi Panarin, coincidentally).
As the Hawks suffer through another depressing start — the team is back in the Western Conference cellar and has the Marc Crawford investigation adding to the gloom — Kane’s incredible streak provided a much-needed bright spot, harkening back to years when both Kane and the Hawks dominated.
“He has a knack, he comes through,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “He can create offense in different ways, and you know he’s done that. And our power play hasn’t really been on track, so there’s more there. Obviously, the team success is most important, but he’s a big part of our team success when we have it.”
Kane said that he was always aware of the number of consecutive games he had scored in and that his confidence tended to snowball slightly, making it easier with each passing night to produce another goal or assist. But he otherwise tried to keep the streak out of his head while on the ice.
“It’s nice when you’re consistent and on a little run,” he said. “But every game you try to treat as a new slate and produce scoring chances, produce chances for yourself and play the right way, and hopefully those things take care of itself.”
After all, points aren’t always the most accurate reflection of performance.
“Sometimes it’s not all about the numbers, it’s about what you can bring to the team and how you play,” he said. “There’s been games in my career where I thought I’ve been awesome and haven’t put anything on the board, and there’s been games where I think I’ve been terrible and I’ve scored two or three points.”
That was the case Saturday, when Kane scored but the Hawks lost 7-3 and he bluntly said afterward he “wasn’t very good.”
It was also the case in the reverse way Monday, when Kane finished with the fifth-best scoring-chance ratio on the team (often not one of his strong suits) despite an egg in the box score.
“[I’ll] try to get a couple days’ rest here and come back strong against Boston, get things going again,” he said.
