Entries with the tag: patrick+kane

NHL Conference Call with the Calder Finalists

by Alanah on 04/23/08 at 05:07 PM
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Today’s NHL media conference call brought together Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Nicklas Backstrom from Washington.  Earlier today all three were named as finalists for the Calder Trophy Award for the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

Here is a transcript from that Q&A session.

Q. For Patrick and Jonathan, going after the same award, how do the two of you feel about that?

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Raising Kane

by Alanah on 02/13/08 at 02:33 PM
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From Len Ziehm at the Chicago Sun-Times,

‘’Things came pretty easy at the start,’’ Savard said Tuesday. ‘’Now teams are fighting to make the playoffs, and the games are getting tougher to play in—but he’s capable of doing that.’’

Kane’s smallish 170-pound frame may be wearing down, and the absence of center Jonathan Toews for 16 games didn’t help. They had been jelling as linemates.

‘’With Toews not being around, that made things a little tougher for him,’’ Savard said. ‘’It takes a [good] centerman to make a line, and not having Toews makes a difference. But they’ll get back to it.

‘’[Kane] has to come with a good work ethic in practice and get in the gym a little more to get stronger.’’

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Mini-Crib Of Patrick Kane

by Paul on 02/08/08 at 11:37 PM
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via WGRZ,

You might think he’s living large; mansions, starlets, fast cars? Not quite. He’s living in the basement bedroom of the team’s assistant General Manager. He takes out the garbage, helps with household chores and is beginning to learn to do his own laundry.

Patrick’s off-ice life is more college freshman than NHL superstar, but that may be what has made him so good on the ice.

watch the video (will open wmp video)…

Following The Chicago Rookies

by Paul on 12/14/07 at 03:48 PM
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from Scott Burnside at ESPN,

Stan Bowman’s youngest son, Camden, has seen his vocabulary grow exponentially, courtesy of the family’s new lodger, Blackhawk rookie Patrick Kane.

The 2-½ year old can now say “Pat Kane,” “Go to practice?,” “Go to game?” and “Take a nap.”

The toddler may not know it, but he has pretty much summed up Kane’s life at the moment.

Sleep, practice, sleep, game, sleep.

Not far away in Brent Seabrook’s newly built home, the Chicago defenseman notices a similar pattern with his new tenant, rookie Jonathan Toews.

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Kane Returns To Buffalo

by Paul on 12/14/07 at 07:42 AM
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from the Chicago Sun-Times,

It’s just one 19-year-old rookie’s first NHL game in his hometown, but Patrick Kane has been thinking about the Blackhawks’ visit to Buffalo for quite awhile—and with good reason.

The NHL thought it was a big enough deal to schedule a media teleconference so Kane could give his thoughts on Saturday’s game. The Buffalo media sent representatives to Chicago this week to shadow Kane for a few days, and the Sabres took the unusual step of opening Saturday’s morning skate to the public so more fans can see the No. 1 draft pick skate live.

‘’It’s not just another game. It’ll be a special night for him,’’ Hawks coach Denis Savard said. ‘’I’ve been through it. There are a lot of distractions. A lot of people want to see you, and you want to see them—but you’ve got a job to do.’’

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Patrick Kane Conference Call

by Alanah on 12/11/07 at 04:33 PM
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Today’s NHL teleconference call was with Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane.

Patrick leads Chicago and all National Hockey League rookies in scoring with 28 points on 7 goals and 21 assists, playing in each of the Blackhawks 29 games so far this season. In some ways, his journey to the NHL will come full circle this Saturday when he will play his first professional game in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, when the Blackhawks visit the Sabres at the HSBC Arena.

Q.  Are you even a little surprised how well things have gone for you this year?

PATRICK KANE: You know, I think coming into the season, probably the biggest thing for me was to try to make the team. Once that kind of happened, things started coming in. I seemed to get a little more ice team here and there, some more opportunities to play with better players and I had a good start. Before you know it, we’re playing—myself and Jonathan, we’re playing against the top checking lines. I guess you don’t expect things to happen that quick. 

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America’s Next Wave

by Steve on 12/10/07 at 12:35 PM
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One of many complaints that casual sports fans have about hockey is that there are too many “foreigners” in our league.  Which, by the way, is utter bunk because they support the NBA’s European and Asian outreach, and the Major Leagues are now making Hispanic players the norm. 

But, they do have a point.  The NFL, a league with 99.9999999% Americans in it, is the man in the United States right now.  The NHL needs some new and talented red, white and blue blood.

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High Praise & Wine

by Paul on 11/30/07 at 10:42 AM
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from the Chicago Tribune,

Gretzky has seen enough of Kane and Toews to heap accolades on the teenagers.

“They love to play, and they love to compete,” Gretzky said. “You can’t replace passion for the game. You watch Toews and Kane play, they’re fun to watch.”

Kane gave his teammates bottles of wine to commemorate his first NHL goal. The bottles of cabernet sauvignon had labels that read: “Patrick Kane, 1st NHL goal vs. Colorado Avalanche, Oct. 19, 2007. Won 5-3.”

The 19-year-old rookie isn’t old enough to buy or drink alcoholic beverages, so he enlisted his father’s help. Kane made the gesture at the suggestion of defenseman Brent Sopel, who said it was an NHL tradition—although several Hawks said they’d never heard of any such tradition.

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Hang Out, Then Go At It

by Paul on 11/25/07 at 09:51 AM
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from the Edmonton Sun,

On Friday they went to dinner, four friends swapping stories and comparing notes on living out a childhood dream.

Then last night, Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews faced each other in a battle showcasing the future stars of the NHL.

Gagner and Cogliano with the Edmonton Oilers, Kane and Toews with the Chicago Blackhawks.

“It’s obviously great getting a chance to play against him after playing with him all of last year,” Gagner said of facing Kane. “It’s exciting.”

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Pivotal Time for Blackhawks

by Alanah on 11/19/07 at 03:12 PM
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From Eric Duhatschek at the Globe & Mail,

So here they are, 20 games into the season, and the Blackhawks are in the midst of a five-day break, before embarking on a pivotal road swing through Western Canada that will give them a clearer idea of whether they are a legitimate playoff contender this year — or still in the throes of a rebuilding program.

Toews and Kane represent the two leaders in the rookie of the year race this season and it is reminiscent of the 2001-02 season, when the two Atlanta Thrashers prospects, Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk, finished one-two in the Calder Trophy race and turned that expansion franchise into a team on the rise. Or at least gave the organization something to get excited about.

After all, excitement has been the missing ingredient on the Chicago hockey scene for the better part of a decade.

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Update 10:39pm ET:
An observation from Mike Downey at the Chicago Tribune:

Hold on to your hockey stick: Only four teams (Red Wings, Rangers, Hurricanes and Senators) in the entire 30-team NHL have won more games so far than the Blackhawks. Cool, man.

Toews & Kane Hitting a Wall

by Alanah on 11/17/07 at 01:13 PM
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From Len Ziehm a the Chicago Sun-Times,

Toews was a minus-3 in a 4-2 loss at Columbus on Wednesday. The next night, he was a minus-2 in a 5-4 overtime loss at Nashville and won only one of 11 faceoffs.  He was disconsolate in the locker room afterward. His teammates tried to cheer him up, but Toews wasn’t buying it.

‘’They’d say that statistics don’t always represent how you’ve been playing, but I was on the ice for five goals-against, so obviously there’s something I’m not doing right,’’ Toews said.

On Friday he went through a video session with assistant coach Ryan Stewart designed to correct his recent mistakes, then got hit in the head with puck in practice at Joe Louis Arena. He’s now sporting a big lump and cut near his right eye, and tonight his line will play against fearsome Red Wings Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk.

Welcome to the NHL, kid.

more... including some comments on Patrick Kane’s recent struggles as well

Kane Can Handle The Pressure

by Paul on 11/10/07 at 12:55 PM
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from the Chicago Tribune,

It is an interactive wonderland worthy of a cover charge. It is a bedroom disguised as a virtual museum of hockey, perfectly ordered and brilliantly gleaming with trophies and plaques, jerseys and posters, a little boy’s dream documented and photographed so thoroughly and displaying such obvious success you have to assume this particular boy has gone on to greatness.

And you would be right. But it gets even better. It is history overlapping, Patrick Kane starring as Forrest Gump.

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Turn Off The Shorts Patrick

by Paul on 11/02/07 at 09:57 AM
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from Icing at the Chicago Tribune,

You see and hear things when part of your job is spent inside NHL lockerrooms....

But the sight of 18-year-old Patrick Kane walking through the vistors lockerroom in Dallas on Wednesday morning wearing only a pair of bright, lime-green boxer shorts was something else. His teammates hooted and hollered at the fashion statement and all he could do was smile.

“I guess I’m just a colorful guy,” Kane said when asked about his attire by a Dallas reporter. Yes, a Dallas reporter, not me. “These are just weird designs on them. I have some with shamrocks. The guys are always giving me a hard time about them.”

more…

Update 1:22pm ET: Patrick Kane name “Rookie of the Month”

NHL Teleconference - Chicago’s Toews and Kane

by Alanah on 10/29/07 at 08:54 PM
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Today, Chicago Blackhawks’ players Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and their coach Denis Savard, were all made available for an NHL teleconference.

The complete transcript is available below. 

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Columbus Beats Chicago - All Impressed By Kane

by Paul on 10/24/07 at 06:28 AM
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from Puck-rakers, a Blue Jackets blog at the Columbus Dispatch,

Hitchcock on Kane: “(The coaching staff) was trying to figure out a player you could compare him to. We haven’t found the right guy yet. If you’re sitting here in Chicago, a hockey fan, you’ve got to be thinking that you’ve got a chance over the next 10 or 15 years to watch this guy play hockey. He has an ability like very few players.”

Michael Peca on Kane: “I think he’s dynamite. He’s got that nose for the puck. I love watching guys like that. I know he was No. 1 overall and there are a lot of expectations. But a lot of people like to knock the little guys. I’d take his skill over the size of some guys in this league. He’s going to be a 100-point guy year after year after year.”

more on the Blue Jackets

Teenagers Changing the Face of the NHL

by Alanah on 10/07/07 at 04:07 PM
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From Jamie Fitzpatrick at About.com,

Does Patrick Kane belong in the NHL? He’ll be 19 in November, and is listed at a miniscule 5’-10” and 163 pounds. He has played one season of junior hockey. How well might he hold up over 82 big-league games with a less than stellar team?

These days, top-drawer prospects arrive more NHL-ready than ever before. In the last two years, Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Kopitar, Vlasic and Jordan Staal have all stepped into the league and flourished as teenagers. On the other hand, Gilbert Brule was a bust in his rookie season, and Nikolai Zherdev has achieved little since arriving from Russia as a 19-year-old in 2003.

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Following The Young Blackhawks

by Paul on 09/27/07 at 02:20 PM
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from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

Physically, personality-wise, and in their backgrounds, the two could not be more diverse.

Toews is a solid, quiet, Canadian boy from Winnipeg, Manitoba, who played on the backyard rink until he was too cold to go on. He honed his skills at the University of North Dakota and was selected with the third overall pick in 2006. Although he just turned 19 in April, there is nothing about Toews that says “boy.”

Kane is not quite scrawny, but definitely slight. Later, he’ll describe with a grin how he “bulked up” over the summer, jumping from 163 pounds in July to 170 at the start of camp.

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Just Like His Coach

by Paul on 09/16/07 at 05:24 AM
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from the Chicago Sun-Times,

Rookie Patrick Kane did nothing in his first scrimmages with the Blackhawks to hurt his chances of making the team. The 18-year-old No. 1 pick in June’s NHL draft scored two nifty goals in leading his Black squad to two wins Saturday at the United Center.

Kane’s second goal was especially eye-catching—a spin-o-rama move against three defenders, just like coach Denis Savard was noted for in his Hall of Fame playing days, before scoring top shelf.

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also from the Chicago Sun-Times,

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane haven’t played an NHL game. Still, the rookie forwards are already being used to promote ticket sales on the team’s Web site and model the new sweaters the Hawks will wear this season. Realistic or not, general manager Dale Tallon predicted Toews and Kane would become ‘’the cornerstone of our franchise’’ before they had even completed a day of training camp.

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