I spoke with Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat about the former's Red Wing debut and their official reunion on Thursday night in Detroit
I spoke with Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat about the former's Red Wing debut and their official reunion on Thursday night in Detroit
On Thursday evening at Little Caesars Arena, Patrick Kane played in his first NHL game in 220 days, making his debut for the Detroit Red Wings. Early Friday afternoon, Kane took part in an energetic Red Wing practice at the BELFOR Performance Center in the bowels of LCA, and after practice, he chatted one-on-one with The Hockey News to debrief that performance.
"I feel good," Kane said, when asked about his physical state the day after his return to the NHL. "I'm excited about where my body's at and where I can trend to here. First game, I thought [I was] pretty good. Got bumped a few times, made some plays, and got used to the action a little bit. I was pretty happy with everything. Just try to keep progressing and getting better every game."
Though wearing a new jersey, Kane spent the majority of his time on the ice (12:34 of his 14:25 at five-on-five) with a familiar face in longtime Blackhawks team- and line-mate Alex DeBrincat.
"I think we had a pretty good feel for each other out there with the way we want to play," said Kane of the duo's reunion. "We had some looks last night—a couple got blocked, a couple posts, a couple good saves by the goalie, a couple unlucky breaks. I think if we create like that every game, then we'll find more than our share to put in the back of the net."
DeBrincat told The Hockey News that he saw plenty of the same qualities that he remembered from their shared days in Chicago on display in Kane's Red Wing debut.
"His hockey sense is through the roof," DeBrincat said of his old friend. "He's always in the right spot; he makes great passes; he makes it easy on his line-mates. I think our breakouts were pretty good and even in-zone, when we had in the zone, we were finding each other. I thought he looked great. It's tough to miss that much time and come in and get that many chances and create that much. I thought he did that, but definitely wasn't perfect from us. We have a lot to build on."
DeBrincat went on to explain that while he and Kane might not have quite matched the chemistry they developed over five seasons together in Chicago, he believes they enjoyed a good start Thursday that portends better things to come.
"I thought it was all right yesterday," DeBrincat explained. "I think it's gonna take some time to get back to maybe the form we're used to, but I thought it was good. Like I said, he made some great passes, had a lot of great chances. I think it's gonna come sooner than later. It was probably even a little bit better than I expected the first game to be between us chemistry-wise."
For Kane, signing with the Red Wings didn't come at an easy point in the schedule. Detroit is in the midst of a busy month of December, a dynamic exacerbated by the team's trip to Sweden (which reduced them to two games in 11 days). As a result, true practices (i.e. not just morning skates) have been scant in Kane's early days as a Red Wing.
Today's session, though brief, offered an occasion for Kane to get even more comfortable with an NHL pace. "That was an up-tempo practice today," he explained. "A lot of three-on-twos, a lot of pace to the practice. It was pretty short, but it's still good to go out there and get the legs moving, get into some confrontations, some pressure against some of your teammates out there too. Those type of skates will definitely be valuable."
As far as getting up to speed on systems, Kane told THN that the bulk of that work actually happens off the ice: "That's probably more like going over video and correcting some things that need to be corrected or things that I just need to understand that whether I'm not used to the structure or just trying to learn on the go."
By all accounts—that of the underlying numbers, Kane's own, Derek Lalonde's, DeBrincat's, Patrick Kane exceeded expectations in his Detroit debut. While his efforts didn't yield any points, he showed flashes of the dynamism that has typified his illustrious career. In spending 43.8% of his time in the offensive zone (per NHL EDGE tracking data, which places him in the league's 89th percentile for the category), Kane proved that orchestrator he once was couldn't simply be erased by hip resurfacing.
Of course, it's only one game and maintaining this form may prove even more difficult than building to it for one night, but even without scoring and in a losing effort, Kane has already raised expectations for his tenure in Detroit.
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