Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane sustained an upper-body injury during his club’s 2-1 overtime victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 17, and missed Detroit’s subsequent nine games.
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Since his return from the injury, he’s skated in 12 games and scored once while adding eight assists. However, he’s had multiple top-notch scoring opportunities that were unsuccessful, including two separate instances in which he had a gaping net to shoot at with the puck nearly on the goal line.
Those are the kinds of chances that Kane would normally have buried with extreme ease during his Hall of Fame career, but he admitted that he continues to battle some inconsistency since coming back.
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“I think it’s kind of been up and down, a little inconsistent,” Kane said of his overall play since returning to the Detroit lineup. “Some games I feel like I’m creating a lot, but overall – I think I’ve been back for 11 or 12 games since my injury and I could easily be sitting here with a handful more goals, right? But whether it’s bearing down and just making sure when you get those chances that puck goes in, that’s kind of on me.”
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The good news for Kane is that he’s had multiple quality looks, and the more it happens, the more he’s likely to begin capitalizing on them.
“But you have to be happy with getting those looks and chances, and try to keep doing the same thing to get those because the more you get, eventually something will break,” he said.
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Kane had a beautiful assist during Detroit’s 3-2 shootout setback against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 29, dishing a nifty backhand feed to Michael Rasmussen at the side of the net late in regulation, helping the Red Wings knot the score at 2-2 and secure a point in the standings.
Head coach Todd McLellan isn’t sweating Kane’s goalless drought, noting that even the most successful players sometimes experience scoring slumps and pointing to the offensive opportunities Kane still manages to create.
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“If I was a betting man, I’d certainly bet on him finishing some of those, but for some reason, they haven’t gone in,” McLellan said of Kane’s recent scoring chances. “Players can go through that, and even Patrick Kane can go through that at times. The simple fact that he’s still creating chances, and when the power-play is going well, it’s usually going through him.”
“The offense is what he’s here for. He gets a little leeway defensively, but he’s still providing that.”
While Kane said he felt his timing was a bit off during his initial return to play, it’s simply a matter of regaining the kind of mental fortitude that’s made him one of the game’s best players throughout his time in the NHL.
“Mentally, just kind of getting out of your own head a little bit and just play the game like you’ve done your whole career,” he said of what he needs to do.
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