Patrick Kane's apparent demotion to third line sparks introspection

Patrick Kane spent some time scratching his playoff beard in front of the media on Saturday, but not because his facial hair itched.

Rather, the Blackhawks' leading goal scorer displayed a few mannerisms of a young man who might be turning introspective at the most crucial juncture of his career.

Being a team-worst minus-6 in the first four games of the Stanley Cup Finals will do that to a 21-year-old. So will an apparent demotion to the Hawks' third line.

That's where Kane played in the third period of Game 4 on Friday night. While nobody proclaimed the line changes official on the Hawks' off-day, it's hard to imagine Joel Quenneville not sticking with the combinations that made some headway.

"I think he's a competitive guy and he wants to be the best he can be," Quenneville said. "We expect him to move forward in this series and welcome the challenge."

Said Kane: "I think sometimes change is healthy. You can mix things up a bit and hopefully energize guys and get things going with different players. I think it worked pretty good last game, so let's see what happens."

By splitting up Kane (1 goal, 2 assists in the Finals) and center Jonathan Toews (1 assist), the Hawks look like they're trying to ensure at least one of their big scorers avoids maximum exposure to Philadelphia defenseman Chris Pronger.

That sounds reasonable, but everybody went out of their way Saturday not to buy into that theory. Kane praised Pronger briefly before redirecting his compliments elsewhere.

"I'm going to give a lot of the credit to the (Flyers) forwards and the way they've been coached, as far as how to backcheck and how to play us in the zone up at the top," Kane said. "That seems like where we're struggling a little bit, to be honest with you."

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette, meanwhile, doesn't seem to worry much about Kane whenever he plays.

"We talked about everybody from Chicago," Laviolette said. "All their players and their personnel, what they're doing. We don't tailor our system to Kane."

In this vein, perhaps nothing matters except Kane's internal response to his struggles.

When he played in the Olympics four months ago, Kane posted just 1 goal in the USA's first four games. Then he delivered 2 goals in the semifinal win over Finland and 2 assists in the 3-2 overtime loss to Canada in the gold-medal game.

"I think that's something you can look back on," Kane said. "That was another high level that, maybe at the time, you're trying to do a little bit too much and trying to prove too much.

"But I think as time went on, I think you get a little more comfortable with the situation, the big stage."