Kane to play against Nashville
For the Blackhawks, it's a dream come true.
For the Nashville Predators, their worst nightmare is about to be realized.
Yes, Hawks fans, feel free to rejoice: Patrick Kane will indeed return for the Hawks' first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against Nashville.
Kane, who skated without the white “hands off” jersey at Johnny's Ice House on Monday, was non-committal about his return afterwards, but coach Joel Quenneville confirmed Kane will “absolutely” play in the series. The team released a statement hours later saying the superstar winger can “return to full participation,” meaning he may very well be on the ice when the teams square off Wednesday.
Quenneville, however, was evasive when questioned on Kane's Game 1 availablity.
“(Exactly) when, we'll have a better indication after (Tuesday's) practice,” Quenneville said.
Kane has blown away the 10-12 week timetable for his return from a broken collarbone by about a month. He wasn't shocked by this rapid rehab, though, saying the doctors did “an unbelievable job with the surgery.”
“After that,” he went on, “I was pretty much full-range of motion within the first week. ... By no means am I out of the woods yet. I still want to make sure if you take a hit or something happens on the ice where you fall down you're in a good situation where you're not going to re-injure it.”
Kane and Quenneville both acknowledged that the Predators may attempt to take a run at Kane at some point.
Quenneville's response was, “There's rules,” — while Kane said that if Nashville wants to make that a focus, bring it on.
“It's like nothing else I've faced since I've been 7, 8 years old,” Kane said. “I'm used to it by now. Just try to roll off the checks, try to get back to the net. Hopefully they'll try to be over-aggressive, (and) we can roll in on them and get some scoring chances.”
Still, how much will that first hit weigh on Kane's mind?
“A little bit,” he said. “Like anything, you try to be cautious with it at first. I've talked with different guys who have had the injury and they say when you're cleared, you're cleared. You just have to have some faith and trust in the healing process.”
Kane skated with the linemates he was with nearly all season in Kris Versteeg and Brad Richards on Monday, while the top line of Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Brandon Saad stayed together.
“I've been skating with him the past few days and he just looks like Patrick to me,” Richards said.
The Hawks have been winning without Kane, going 12-8-1, which includes a four-game skid to end the season.
While Quenneville admitted the team wasn't laser focused in the final weeks, the performance dropoff was most notable in the scoring as the Hawks averaged 2.95 goals before Kane's injury and 2.36 since. Kane was tied for the league lead when he was hurt with 64 points (27 goals). He was on pace for 86 points, which would have been the second-best total of his career.
Now that Kane is cleared for Game 1, should there be any concern about the fact that his first action in seven weeks is about to come in a playoff game? Blackhawks radio analyst Troy Murray told me that because Kane is such a one-of-a-kind player, the return to game action shouldn't affect him the way it may affect many others.
“Obviously you're coming back from injury, the first couple times you're on the ice it may take the first hit to realize, ‘OK, I'm good, I'm fine, it's not gonna hurt,' ” Murray said. “But skill-wise, timing wise (pause, smiles) ... it's Patrick Kane.”
Another key factor, according to Murray, is that Kane's injury didn't affect his ability to keep up his conditioning.
“He's been able to skate, he's been able to keep his timing down to a large degree,” Murray said. “If you were coming back from a knee injury and you're trying to get that speed back up, it's a different story. With an upper-body injury, in a lot of ways it's a mind set. And I think with Patrick Kane, his mental toughness is as good as anybody's in the game.”
Quenneville was asked if he would have been surprised if told two weeks ago that Kane would be returning so soon.
“I wouldn't have been totally surprised,” the coach said. “I would have been totally excited. When you dream in color, this situation could happen.”
So start dreaming big, Blackhawks fans. Kane's return gives you plenty of permission to do exactly that as Kane, Toews, Hossa, Keith, Crawford and company attempt to get their hands on a third Lord Stanley's Cup in six years.
• Follow John's Hawks reports on Twitter @johndietzdh.