Patrick Kane knocked the puck out of the air and toward Artemi Panarin, who juked before finding some space and scoring the empty-net goal.
“Gotta work on my lefty throw, I guess,” Kane said.
Maybe, but it worked well enough to establish a franchise record on Sunday.
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Kane’s assist on Panarin’s goal with less than two minutes remaining in regulation gave Kane a 22-game point streak, now the longest in Blackhawks’ history, in the team’s 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. Kane passed Bobby Hull, who had held the franchise mark with a 21-game point streak established during the 1971-72 season.
It was another game in which Kane nearly didn’t extend the streak. Once he did, however, there was relief.
“It's not your usual point, I guess. But I think the exciting part was just how into it the crowd was when the announcement was made and hearing how excited they were,” Kane said. “That was a fun little feeling there.”
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Kane saw Hull at the Blackhawks’ season ticket-holder party on Friday, and that Hull was supportive of Kane breaking his franchise record.
“He obviously had a tremendous career, scored a lot of goals. Any time you can put your name with Bobby Hull or (Denis) Savard or Eddie Olcyzk, you got to be doing something right,” Kane said. “Support from the team was awesome; I think everyone was excited for me too. Good that it came with a win, too. That's a huge win for us.”
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Coach Joel Quenneville said Kane’s drive for the new point-streak record, “kept everybody interested the whole game.”
“Great play exiting our zone, good finish as well,” Quenneville said. “I think everybody on our team was rooting for him and going out of our way a little more of what we generally try to do and make sure he got a touch before we attempted a play at the net. It’s been a remarkable stretch for him; happy for him to sustain and achieve it. It’s an amazing stretch to the start of the season.”