It’s been a year since I wrote about Patrick Kane.
Since then, the veteran winger has had a shorter-then-expected playoff run with the New York Rangers, received a medical procedure that’s typically career-ending for NHLers and signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings.
Before the season I would’ve bet against Kane in his quest to re-establish himself as a top forward on a playoff team. And yet DET88 has a chance to do just that.
Kane’s 5v5 possession stats have been significantly better since his return from hip resurfacing surgery.
He’s scoring 5v5 goals at a career-best rate (though that output’s been inflated by an unsustainable 18.8% shooting percentage).
Most importantly, he’s moving more fluidly and, presumably, with less pain.
One specific area of Kane’s game illustrates his resurgence
From last year’s breakdown:
Game 4: 0% Possession to 100% Possession
(Also known as Taking pucks away)
What good looks like: Getting under the puck carrier’s stick and stealing the puck, or anticipating and intercepting the next pass.
What Kane does: Kane has a quick defensive stick that he uses to create takeaways and switches between man-on-man and zone coverage to jump into passing lanes.
Is what Kane does effective: Yes, but it doesn’t matter all that much. 0-100 possession puck are vanishingly rare compared to 50-100 loose-puck retrievals and 100-100 pass receptions. According to the NHL, Kane only has 20 takeaways in 54 games while league leader Mitch Marner has 56 in 58 games. The main difference is that Marner is much more active defensively and gets himself within a sticklength of his check at a higher frequency.
Takeaways are a niche part of the game, a stat that doesn’t dictate results in a macro sense and one that isn’t recorded particularly well by league scorekeepers.
However, whenever Kane dispossesses an opponent of the puck, good things tend to happen.
By forcing clean turnovers, DET88 can immediate access the middle of the ice, which puts him and his teammates in a strong counter-attacking position against disorganized foes. The occasional steal also reinforces a virtuous cycle in Kane’s defensive play. The more he’s able to close on opposing skaters and get his stick involved, the more likely he is to get in the way just often enough to be a positive two-way contributor on a nightly basis.