It was early on a Friday morning back in 2011 and Jonathan Toews was parked outside Patrick Kane’s place, engine running. Waiting, calling. Eventually buzzing.
Chicago hadn’t played since Tuesday night at home, so the Blackhawks’ All-Star break was longer than most. Toews and Kane had a flight out of O’Hare that morning, bound for Raleigh and the National Hockey League’s All-Star Game.
They were both in their fourth NHL season, coming off the Blackhawks first Stanley Cup in forever (actually, since 1961). One was as good a player as Team Canada had, the other the same for Team USA. Together, they were deemed the players most responsible for bringing an Original Six franchise from irrelevance to the kind of prominence that ends on a ticker tape parade down Michigan Avenue, and a seemingly annual reservation in the Winter Classic.
But at that time, they — or at least one of them — weren’t quite ready for all of that responsibility. Not that morning, as Toews eventually gave up on Kane and made his way to the airport. In Raleigh, Toews was exasperated. He found some humour in Kane’s behaviour, but one thing you knew for sure: Toews could go through 100 All-Star breaks and never sleep through that flight the way Kane had.
Today, Toews is more at ease in front of the cameras than he was then. He isn’t Captain Serious anymore, according to Kane, who has grown up himself. Call Kane Private Serious — he doesn’t miss flights anymore, get into it with a cabbie, or appear pinned inside Vancouver limousines or on American university campuses anymore.
They haven’t only learned from each other. They have actually become one another, to an extent.
“Maybe we’ve spent too much time together,” Kane laughed. “We kind of grew up together. I envision him like a partner in crime. You spend five years rooming with each other, you’ll get sick of each other at times, but you’ll have some good times as well.
“I’m fortunate to go through everything I have with him. It’s been fun, we’re closer than ever right now, and we’re still learning from each other to this day.”
Today the Blackhawks host the Pittsburgh Penguins, a ripper of a game on Hometown Hockey. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin vs. Toews and Kane. Who would have thought, as the Penguins celebrated their Cup victory in Joe Louis Arena back in June of 2009, that in the ensuing decade, Chicago would pass the Penguins by with three Conference finals — and two Cups — to Pittsburgh’s one Conference final?
Crosby may be the best player in the game, but Chicago has become the sexier team. Much of that is due to Kane’s graduation from sloppy kid to fun-loving — but in control — hockey star.
With he and Toews about to begin their matching eight-year, $84 million deals next season, the Blackhawks now have a pair of Batmans, as opposed to one Batman and one Joker.
“Everyone has their own little route. I’m happy with everything I went through. It made who I am today, and the player I am today,” said Kane, for whom greater control in life has turned into improved professionalism in his day job. “Maybe back a few years ago, if you scored, or had a good night, maybe you felt like you didn’t have to be ready. I think that’s the total opposite now. I want to be even more ready the next night — wipe the slate clean, and be prepared as ever for every game.”
This season Kane hasn’t missed a game and is on pace to set new career marks in goals and points. Remember, he’s only 26. That puts him in somewhere between Year 2 and 3 of his prime years.
And the respect of is peers is unfailing. From those who marvel at his skill, like Patrik Elias — “It’s amazing what he can do with the puck. It’s so effortless it seems like he has it on a string all the time” — to those, like Ryan Getzlaf, who speak to Kane’s production.
“He’s not a guy you hate on the ice, because he’s not really an aggressive player. He’s more of a sleeper,” Getzlaf said. “All of the sudden he has the puck, you’ve lost track of him, and now the puck’s in the net and he’s got his hands in the air.
“He doesn’t talk a whole lot. For me, I play against guys who are hard on me, who play me hard. With him, it’s more about his ability to be around the puck and somehow get it in the back of your net before you know what’s going on.”
It’s what he does, Patrick Kane. And now, it’s all he does.
