Another month in the books, and while November had a promising start (6-1-2 in first 9 games), the Blackhawks finished a somewhat less inspiring 7-5-3, which wasn’t terrible and certainly better than their 3-6-2 October.
That being said, the story of the month was Patrick Kane, who celebrated another birthday (On November 19 - his 31st), but showed no signs at all of slowing down. With 11 goals and 13 assists, his 24 points in November were twice as many as any other Blackhawks player (Toews & DeBrincat tied for second-most with 12). Kane scored or assisted on nearly half of all Blackhawks goals this month – 24 of 49.
Most impressively, Kane’s 24 points set a new high for any month in his NHL career. In addition to being a personal best, Kane’s two dozen points were the most by any Blackhawk in a single month since Jeremy Roenick posted 24 points of his own in March 1994.
Kane was held pointless in his last game of October (Oct 29 at Nashville). That’s the last time he played a game and was held without a tally. He played 15 games this past month and had a point in all of them (he was also perfect in November 2015 – a point in all 13 games in the middle of his career-long 26 game streak). It’s his third career point streak of at least 15+ games; his sixth of at least 10+ games. Kane is the ONLY active player with at least three career point streaks of 15+ games (Sidney Crosby & Evgeni Malkin are the only others with at least two), and Kane joins only Denis Savard (who had four) among Blackhawks with at least three career point streaks of 15+ games.
Kane’s six career double-digit point streaks total 98 games – that’s over ten percent (10.55%) of his 929-game NHL career!
Also this month, Kane went from 103rd (947 points) to 95th (971 points) on the NHL career points list passing seven players, including three Hall of Famers - Chris Chelios (948)*, Vincent Lecavalier (949), Rick Tocchet (952), Larry Robinson (958)*, Kirk Muller (959), Henrik Zetterberg (960) & Maurice “Rocket” Richard (966)*. The spotlight will remain on Kane, as he will pass Shane Doan (972) & Andy Bathgate (973)* within his next few games as he skates towards 1,000 points. Plus while the month has ended, the point streak continues. There should be plenty of Showtime to come in the final month of the year.
*- Hall of Famer
NHL
(Thanks to the folks at the NHL for research assistance)
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