It was against the Minnesota Wild last postseason when “Showtime” was truly born. Patrick Kane had already been a star in the league at that point, with one of the best-selling jerseys, endorsements and a cabinet full of individual and team trophies. But his highlight-reel backhand goal in Game 1 of that second round series provided a breathtaking moment and a catch phrase that has now morphed into an unofficial nickname for the player formerly known blandly as "Kaner."
Kane celebrated the goal, arms raised and the cameras caught him shouting “Showtime” to his teammates.
It seems now that every time he is on the ice, it really is showtime and Kane is delivering when the games matter most.
Now the 26-year-old former first-overall pick is terrorizing the Wild again with goals in all three games as the Blackhawks have opened up a 3-0 series lead on their Central Division rivals. Kane’s goal-scoring streak is actually up to four games now as he also had a goal and an assist in a series-clinching Game 6 against the Nashville Predators.
Despite his youth, Kane has already surpassed 100 career postseason points. He has 11 in nine postseason contests in 2015, including six goals, which includes the lone goal in Chicago’s 1-0 win over the Wild Tuesday night to build a near-insurmountable series lead.
#Showtime @88PKane goes five hole. #CHIvsMIN #StanleyCup https://t.co/RZUlXIXwtv
— NHL (@NHL) May 6, 2015
Chicago is now one win away from advancing to their third consecutive Western Conference Final and fifth in the last seven seasons. They’re doing it on the backs of their stars, led by Kane and his 11 points. Duncan Keith has been a major contributor with 10 points from the blue line and team captain Jonathan Toews has nine. All three have been the most significant pieces of a core that has won two Stanley Cups.
One of the common themes of the last three postseasons for Chicago is some massive production from Kane. In 2013, he won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP with 19 points in 23 games en route to Chicago’s second Stanley Cup title in four seasons. Last year, when Chicago was a goal away from advancing to the Stanley Cup Final again, Kane posted 20 points in 19 games. He is currently on pace to surpass both of those totals if the Blackhawks go the distance.
Over the last three years, Kane has put up 50 points in 51 postseason games, more than any player in the NHL over that span. Toews is the next closest player with 40. Kane's 22 goals is also tops among all NHLers and he ranks fourth in points-per-game.
His postseason prowess is nothing new, of course. As a 21-year-old, Kane registered 28 points including the Stanley Cup clinching goal in 2010. The year before, he put up 14 points in 16 games in his postseason debut.
Kane now has 102 points in 102 career games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He is one of just three American-born players with at least 95 career playoff games to have averaged a point per game or better. Former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Kevin Stevens is tops with 1.03, while New York Rangers great Brian Leetch is second with 1.02. Other names behind Kane on the list: Brett Hull, Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick and Pat Lafontaine, just to name a few of the more notables.
What makes Kane’s performance in the 2015 playoffs so impressive is that he wasn’t even expected to be playing right now. After suffering a fractured clavicle Feb. 24 following getting shoved awkwardly into the boards, Kane’s prognosis for return was 12 weeks after undergoing surgery. He got back in seven.
In his first game in nearly two months, Kane had two assists in Game 1 against the Predators. He has been held off the score sheet only once in the playoffs, Game 3 against Nashville. Now he's on a six-game point streak.
“I give [the medical staff and trainers] all the credit,” Kane said after the Game 3 win (via Chicago Sun-Times). “Obviously it’s nice to be playing hockey with your teammates instead of sitting out watching. That was tough. I’m just happy to be here, happy to be a part of the team right now and playing games.”
What Kane is doing and has been doing in the postseason over his career is why when other scorers find their production running dry, they get criticized mercilessly. Kane in particular has spoiled us to believe what he is doing should be commonplace for his fellow elites. Even if it’s nothing more than bad luck for a lot of those guys (cough Rick Nash cough), Kane doesn’t seem to hit the same lulls. He’s had a few rough patches, notably the very beginning of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final against the Bruins, but they never seem to last long.
It’s not just about the volume of points Kane has produced, though. It's about when many of them have come. He has scored big goal after big goal in his NHL career, which may give him a clutch tag. Scoring in the clutch hasn’t been proven to be a repeatable skill, but Kane’s overall skill level has contributed in a big way to his “clutch scoring,” for lack of a better term.
He scored the Stanley Cup winner in 2010, the Western Conference Final clincher in double overtime against the Los Angeles Kings in 2013, and the overtime series clincher against the Wild in Game 6 last year. Kane also has delivered the game winner in each of the last two games over the Wild, though in less dramatic fashion than the previous three.
Maybe Kane is just in the right place at the right time a heck of a lot, but he’s the kind of player that makes us believe that stars can and should shine in the biggest moments of the game. It can’t always be showtime for the best players in the league, but it sure seems to be for Kane.
