This article originally appeared in Sportsnet Magazine.
Q: If you score a really sweet goal, will you go back and watch the highlight later?
Kane: Oh, yeah. If I score a goal on the road, I come home and that’s probably the first thing I’m doing, pullin’ up the laptop and watching. Can’t watch it in front of the teammates or else I’ll get made fun of. I’ll watch it a few times for sure. Anyone who says they don’t is lying to you.
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Q: Really? I appreciate the honesty. Everyone has been lying. So you’re all very into yourselves.
Kane: Oh, yeah. For sure.
Q: Who has the best mullet in hockey?
Kane: Back in the day, Jagr probably.
Q: How about last season?
Kane: Were there any other mullets besides me? Obviously it’s me. For sure.
Q: Who cuts that for you?
Kane: A barber in Chicago. I came up with it, and he’s done a good job. Sometimes the stripes are a little bit angled instead of straight,
so we gotta fix that.
Q: Does that help with the speed, the racing stripes?
Kane: Yeah, I feel a little bit more aerodynamic, you know? When I go down the ice I feel it, the wind in the side of my hair and then I got the party in the back.
Q: You grew up with three sisters, and you’re the oldest. What was that like?
Kane: They got a couple good stories about me when I was little. I’d say, “Hey girls, let’s play hockey, let’s play soccer.” They’d be like, “OK, you gotta play dolls with us first.”
Q: So, you played Barbies?
Kane: [Laughs.] We’ll just call it “house” or something.
Q: You’re Patrick Kane II. Did anyone call you Patty when you were young?
Kane: A lot of the players that I play with who are Canadian, they call me Patty. Before then, I never heard it. I didn’t mind Patty. Like, “Hey, Patty!”
Q: How would you describe your hands? Not your actual hands—your hockey hands.
Kane: Hockey hands? I don’t know, they could get better, right?
Q: Do you really believe that? OK. So how do you come up with new moves?
Kane: I stickhandle a lot at practice. I watch a lot of hockey, so I try to either pick up something from other players or watch some video and see what kind of move would work in the same situation. You can’t do the same thing every time coming down the ice or else you get too predictable, so I try to change it up.
Q: Who do you watch for inspiration?
Kane: Datsyuk is special with the puck and does a lot of things I wish I could do. Crosby and Malkin are fun. I like watching Tavares from the Islanders. He’s pretty nifty and crafty with the puck, too.
Q: Were you a crazy-good stickhandler even when you were seven?
Kane: My dad would make me stickhandle wherever I went, whether it was going to the game or a tournament, going to the hotel and stickhandling outside the hotel doors in the hallway. I always had a stick and ball, movin’ it around. I loved it.
Q: If you and Jonathan Toews were in a phone booth together, two sticks, one puck, who has the puck after 10 minutes?
Kane: We’d probably break the phone booth down.
Q:OK, two minutes.
Kane: Jonny’s pretty competitive. He might be tough to beat, but I feel confident in myself.
Q: Do you get sick of talking about him?
Kane: Absolutely. I always get sick of talkin’ about him because I always say good things about him.
Q: There’s nothing bad to say?
Kane: He’s become a really good friend of mine. We’ve had our battles for sure, yellin’ at each other, whether it’s been on or off the ice. We’ve had our moments. We kind of view each other like brothers now.
Q: Any art on the walls at your apartment in Chicago?
Kane: No, just a lot of pictures of me. [Laughs.]
Q: What? Come on. Your apartment is full of pictures of you?
Kane: Not the whole thing, but there’s definitely some. Pictures of me scoring a goal, me and my sisters, maybe me and my girlfriend, my family, buddies. Not just hockey stuff.
Q: How many more Cups do you figure are in the cards?
Kane: I’m pretty fortunate to have won two right now at the age of 25. Be nice to win a couple more, though.
