Patrick Kane was honored but the Blackhawks lost to the Canucks. | Getty
The Hawks are 0-4-1 and have still yet to have a lead this season after falling 4-1 to the Canucks on Thursday.
Patrick Kane enjoyed one of the most belated 1,000-games-played ceremonies in NHL history Thursday.
Two hundred twenty-six days after he hit the milestone March 9 in Dallas — having upped his total to 1,033 games played in the meantime — Kane was finally honored before the Hawks’ 4-1 loss to the Canucks.
The pregame ceremony was decidedly louder and better-attended than the unofficial ceremony the Hawks held for him March 23, when only his teammates and family could be in attendance. His family — and son — were back in the building Thursday, too.
“I was so excited to see him,” Kane said on the NBC Sports Chicago intermission show. “[It was] nice of my sisters to come down. My parents have been here for a lot of games and been a part of a lot of special moments… It was very special to stand with them.”
Jonathan Toews, the only man other than Kane drawing significant cheers from fans during this lackluster Hawks’ opening homestand, re-presented Kane his commemorative silver stick. After hitting the 1,000 games, 1,000 points and 400 goals milestones all in the past two years, though, Kane is — for once — tiring of the spotlight.
“I feel like I’ve had too many ceremonies,” he added. “It’s nice to get them over with and get on with it.”
Strome finally debuts
Dylan Strome finally made his season debut Thursday, ending his streak of four consecutive healthy scratches.
Mike Hardman’s placement into concussion protocol earlier in the day somewhat forced Colliton to remove Strome from his doghouse, as did a desire to shake things up after the team’s disastrous start. Ryan Carpenter also drew into the lineup while Philipp Kurashev was somewhat surprisingly scratched.
“[Kurashev] was one of our best forwards in camp and preseason, and we need him to get back to that level,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “It’s obviously an opportunity for other guys to go in who are hungry for the chance and maybe they can give us a spark. But sometimes coming out is what you need to get refocused and back to the level you can play out.”
Colliton added pregame that he expected Strome to “find ways to chip in offensively,” a total reversal in his previous strategy of avoiding talking about Strome at all costs.
Strome nearly scored on a scoring chance in the opening minutes, but later committed a costly penalty that eventually led to a Canucks five-on-three goal.
More notes
The Blackhawks entered Thursday riding the longest streak without having a lead to start a season in franchise history, at 240:57 — surpassing the previous longest streak of 226:06, set last season.
Former Hawks forward and radio play-by-play broadcaster Troy Murray attended morning skate Thursday, one of his first times out of his house since being diagnosed with cancer in August. Toews led a surprise team salute to Murray at the end of the skate.
Kevin Lankinen made his second start of the season to Marc-Andre Fleury’s three. Colliton implied the two goaltenders’ split of the starts moving forward will be “relatively even,” comparing it to Corey Crawford and Robin Lehner’s division of work in 2019-20.
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