Looking back at Patrick Kane's point streak
Patrick Kane's point streak was something to behold, something that years from now everyone from his teammates to his coaches to hundreds of thousands of Chicago Blackhawks fans will remember witnessing and being a part of.
It began on Oct. 17, with a late third-period goal in a 4-1 victory over Columbus.
It survived back-to-back 1-0 overtime victories just a week later.
It marched on thanks to an assist with 26.6 seconds left at Anaheim in an overtime win on Nov. 27.
It hit a franchise-record 22 games thanks to a hand pass to Artemi Panarin late in a 3-1 win over Winnipeg on Dec. 6.
And on Tuesday, Dec. 15 — nearly two months after it began — the streak finally ended at 26 in a 3-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at the United Center.
“Amazing. Amazing streak,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “I commend him on the consistency, the preparation. I'm sure it was challenging with the stress and trying to sustain it late in games recently.”
The run was the longest in the NHL since Mats Sundin's 30-gamer in 1992-93 and fell two short of the top 10 in league history.
“Yeah, it was a fun run,” said Kane, who also admitted talking about it every day was beginning to wear on him. “I think you never know what's going to happen with the streak or there's a lot of games when it seemed like we were down and out and you end up getting something at the end. …
“But it was fun breaking the American record (held by Eddie Olczyk and Phil Kessel). I was happy with that and to break the franchise record, too — that was pretty special as well. It was definitely fun while it lasted.”
Kane recorded 40 of his league-best 46 points during the streak. Sixteen of the points were goals, 9 coming on the power play.
The Hawks lost for just the fourth time at the United Center this season, mostly because they couldn't solve Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov. The 27-year-old Russian (29 saves) improved to 11-3-0 against the Hawks with a .949 save percentage.
Colorado (15-16-1) has won six of eight and has climbed out of the Central Division cellar, moving 1 point ahead of Winnipeg. The Avs got goals from Matt Duchene, Zach Redmond and an empty-netter from Gabriel Landeskog.
When Duchene scored, it was the first goal allowed by Hawks goalie Corey Crawford in 156 minutes and 16 seconds.
In the final moments, Duchene said the Avs definitely wanted to make sure Kane's streak didn't continue.
“When he was on the ice there at the end, we were kind of like, 'OK, it'd be a nice little feather in our cap to end it,' ” he said.
The Hawks (17-11-4, 12-4-1 at home) had some prime scoring chances in the second period, but Andrew Desjardins, Bryan Bickell and Teuvo Teravainen all failed to solve Varlamov.
“He's a good goalie,” Duncan Keith said. “They played a pretty good, solid game. Give them credit. But at the same time, I don't think we were as sharp as we can be and maybe as direct as we need to be.”
The Hawks close out their four-game homestand Thursday against Edmonton, which is 6-1 in its last seven games.