NEW YORK — Patrick Kane is on a blazing run that has him on track for the biggest individual season of his career, but the Blackhawks are the worst they’ve been since he arrived.
Kane’s doing everything he can, and it’s often not enough.
“When you’re losing games you always feel there’s a little bit more to give and there’s a play here or there you could have made to change the outcome,” he said at morning skate. “We’re not perfect in here. We can’t be perfect, but I think after every game everyone thinks there’s something they can do better.”
That’s either modesty or trying to say the right thing because it’s a bad look to gloat when his team is in last place, because the Hawks have gotten plenty from Kane lately.
He went 28:50 on the ice Monday, his career high for a regular-season game, while trying to bail the Hawks out of a dreadful loss to the Devils. He finished at plus-2, which is impressive considering the Hawks fell 8-5.
Kane didn’t mind the extra work.
“I felt like I could have kept going,” he said.
He had two goals and two assists that night, giving him 14 and 18 in his last 18 games. He’s on pace for 46 goals and 109 points; the latter would be a personal best and the former would match his high set in 2015-16.
Kane is headed to his eighth NHL All-Star Game next weekend and will be the only Hawks representative. The team is assured of being no higher than sixth place in the Central Division at that point.
“We’ve definitely left some points on the table,” Kane said. “Pretty frustrating given where we’re at in the standings.
“I think we still know how to play well [and] we still know what we have to do to win games… Hopefully, we’ll finish strong here and get a couple wins and you feel good going into [the break].”
Lineup shuffling
Jeremy Colliton continues to work through line combinations and has yet to find the look he wants.
He tried 11 forwards and seven defensemen in the Devils game, which is part of why Kane played so much, but scrapped that against the Rangers. Recently acquired defenseman Slater Koekkoek will be a healthy scratch as the Hawks go back to 12 forwards.
Colliton set up Jonathan Toews’ line with Brandon Saad and Alex DeBrincat. Kane will play with Dylan Strome and relative newcomer Drake Caggiula. The defensemen remain a work-in-progress as well.
“We can play better,” Colliton said. “I don’t think we have the perfect combos yet and we’re trying to find how it’s going to look down the road, too.
“Some of the combos are familiar and some are not, but I think that’s just how a season goes. You’re not going to stick with the same ones all the time.”
