Patrick Kane Still Can’t Find The Back Of The Net

Published: 19^th Jan 12 1:01 am

Randy Holt
NHL Network Manager

1 Rant »

Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

The Blackhawks routed the Buffalo Sabres, who are in a complete tailspin, on Wednesday to the tune of 6-2. In all of that scoring, one name was left off of the stat sheet in the ‘goal’ column: Patrick Kane.

Not that this is anything new. Unlike his alleged life away from the ice, Kane has had a difficult time scoring of late. And by “of late”, I mean pretty much all season.

Kane has just 10 goals on the year, and has only found the back of the net three times since the beginning of December. He does have 29 assists, and 39 points, on the season, meaning that he’s not having an awful year. Just struggling to score.

The general consensus, or hope, was that playing his hometown team on Wednesday, Buffalo, would help ignite some sort of scoring from Kane. That didn’t happen. Kane didn’t add a point to the effort, but he didn’t have to. The Hawks rolled a team that can’t buy a win right now on the road (as hard as they tried to buy some last summer).

He might not admit it, but Kane’s confidence certainly has to be hurting right now. For a who’s scored at least 25 goals in each of the past three seasons, 10 goals has him on pace for a career low. But that could change rather quickly.

If you listen to Mike Milbury, Kane is “depressed” and was “lazy” at a couple points during the 6-2 win. But if you listen to Mike Milbury, you likely also believe that the Hawks need a goaltender. Or that he’s a reliable source of anything logical.

Kane is going to come out of this slump eventually. All it will take is a couple scoring chances that actually find the back of the net and get his confidence back up.

As of right now, the Hawks don’t need Kane to score in bushels to be successful. They’re getting plenty from Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, and the wealth of secondary scoring that has suddenly appeared, mainly from Viktor Stalberg and Dave Bolland, along with super rookies Andrew Shaw and Jimmy Hayes.

But eventually, Kane is going to have to start finding the back of the net. And given his skill set and the fact that the team around him is, once again, starting to pick up steam on the offensive side, it’s only a matter of time before he begins to do so.

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NHL Blog Beat – January 19, 2012. | Spectors Hockey says:

January 19, 2012 at 12:46 pm

[...] RANT SPORTS: Randy Holt notes Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane has scored only ten goals this season, but remains confident he’ll regain his scoring touch. Y’know, if the Blackhawks were struggling to make the playoffs, Kane’s lack of production would’ve received more attention. Amazing how winning can hide a scoring slump of a star player. Suter more valuable than Weber? [...]

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