16-year NHL veteran Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks has been off to a noticeably slow start in the 2022-23 campaign.
Through six games this year, Kane has just five points to his name thanks to four assists and one goal. His first, and to this point only, goal finally came in Tuesday night’s contest against the Florida Panthers thanks to a nice pass by Andreas Athanasiou.
Kane’s first goal of the year gave the Blackhawks a two-point advantage over the Panthers, one that they never looked back on, as they ultimately won the contest 4-2 thanks to goals from Kane, Taylor Raddysh, Philipp Kurashev and Jonathan Toews.
Tuesday night’s victory over Florida now has the Blackhawks riding a cool four-game winning streak, one many likely did not see entering the season.
Watch: Patrick Kane’s first goal of the 2022-23 NHL season
Last year, Chicago did not even win its fourth game of the season until November 13th, let alone four in a row. Kane had the following to say about the hot streak the team is riding.
"“It’s fun, I think last year we didn’t win a game until our 10th or 11th game, so it’s nice to get off to this start this year. I think when you get off to a good start, you can really propel that throughout the season, so hopefully that’s the case.”"
In the 2021-22 campaign, Kane appeared in 78 games for the Blackhawks, scoring a total of 92 points (26 goals, 66 assists), the third highest mark he’s ever had in a single season and his best performance since 2018-19.
After Tuesday’s game that saw him finally break through and score his first goal of the year, Kane told post-game reporters that he hopes to continue scoring and got on a hot streak, much like the Blackhawks as a whole are on right now.
"“It’s a good feeling, I try not to put too much pressure on it. There are going to be times throughout the season where you may go five games without a goal, but it’s probably more noticeable at the beginning of the season. It was nice to get one. Hopefully (I can) build off that, get hot here.”"
His goal against the Panthers was the 800th even-strength point (points scored while both teams have six players on the ice) tallied in his career, making him just the third active player to reach the mark after Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.
Over the course of Blackhawks’ history, only Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull had ever done so before Kane added his name to the bunch.