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Blackhawks' Kane honored with Conn Smythe Trophy

BOSTON — Now with two Stanley Cups, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have to be considered among the greatest Blackhawks ever.

Kane joined Toews in another exclusive club on Monday when he was voted the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP after the Hawks beat Boston 3-2 to win their second championship in four years.

Toews was the Conn Smythe winner the first time the Hawks won the Cup in 2010.

“It doesn't mean too much right now,” Kane said of winning the Conn Smythe. “It's something no one can take away from you and as someone said, it's the fourth American to win the award.

“I'm blessed. I played with great players all playoffs and I wouldn't have been capable of doing this without my teammates. There are other guys that could have won it, too. You look at (Corey) Crawford, he probably got snubbed a little bit; Bicks (Bryan Bickell) and Sharpie (Patrick Sharp).”

The Hawks won the game with high drama, getting goals from Bickell and Dave Bolland 17 seconds apart in the final 1:16 of the third period to rally from a 2-1 deficit.

“My head is spinning,” Kane said. “I don't even know what's happened the past 20 minutes, to be honest with you. You think you're going back for Game 7 and you score 2 goals to win it in regulation. This team has had the resiliency all year.

“You can't write the script any better. Two times in four years, there's something about this core. We've got to stay together because I think we can do some special things in the future, too.”

Kane was emotional as he spoke to reporters on the ice.

“It's unbelievable to be in this situation,” he said. “There were role players on the 2010 team that meant a lot to us that couldn't stay for us for the next year. I think nine or 10 or 11 guys got moved, and the Blackhawks did a great job of drafting and filling in those holes.

“You look at guys they drafted: (Brandon) Saad, (Andrew) Shaw, a big trade for (Nick) Leddy, who's going to be a big player in the future. And then just little signings like (Michal) Rozsival, picking up (Viktor) Stalberg, who's got great speed. We can go up and down the line and name off guys and how they contributed to this team and this game.”

Kane had praise for Toews as well.

“He's a great player,” Kane said. “He's played big in a lot of big games. He won the Conn Smythe our last playoffs and was awesome in that Olympic gold medal game and made some big plays tonight; a big goal, a big pass to Bickell to tie it up. He's just a competitor.

“That's really all you can say about Jonathan Toews is he's a competitor. He leads the team in the right way, and we all follow.”

As for Kane, Brent Seabrook summed him up.

“Kaner is a guy that needs to play with the puck,” Seabrook said. “We have a good D-core so we can give him the puck. When he's playing with the puck, he's so dynamic and skilled and fun to watch. Sometimes we watch him a little bit too much, but he's a great player and once he started to get it into gear he was going to be lights out. He was lights out in this series.”

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