A GAME OF INCHES
American-born all-stars buddies since their teens love to face each other
Down 5-0 in the second period, the Leafs stormed back to within a goal and pressed in final minute — Auston Matthews denied on the doorstep by backup goalie Collin Delia — but the Blackhawks held on, 5-4.
Patrick Kane and Auston Matthews rekindled their mutual respect before the Blackhawks and Maple Leafs squared off at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
While their teams are in different conferences and face each other only twice a season, Kane and Matthews have a friendship that extends back to when the Leafs centre was in his earlier teens, attending high-end hockey camps.
One was in Florida, where the American-born all-stars met for the first time, and they have never ceased to admire what the other has accomplished. Now a team leader himself and gunning for his second 40-goal season in three years, Matthews says he doesn’t really pattern himself after other players anymore, but acknowledges Kane’s influence on his rise to stardom.
“He was someone I looked up to,” Matthews, raised in Arizona, said of the Buffalo-born Kane. “He is incredible. You see what he’s doing this season, he seems to be the same player every game. He scores and he likes to score, and it doesn’t matter who he’s playing with. He’s always hungry for more and it’s pretty special watching him play.”
The pair traded playful goal celebrations when the teams met in October, a 7-6 Leaf win.
“I just think it was the kind of things that help grow the game, to be honest with you,” Kane said Wednesday. “You’ve got a great young American player (Matthews) coming up, face of the franchise, probably one of the faces in the NHL, a guy who’s had success in his career … for us to go at it like that, to have the celebrations like that, it was nothing planned — raw emotion out on the ice. That’s when the best stuff comes out. A pretty cool moment.”
At 30, Kane is making his 11th season one of his best, sits second in NHL scoring with 99 points after picking up an assist in Wednesday’s 5-4 win, and ranks third in goals with 41.
He had 39 points in 35 games before a three-point game against Dallas on Dec. 20, and has been on a tear ever since with 60 points in 36 games. His 20-game point streak, which ended in February, was the second-longest in NHL history — behind his own 26-game roll three seasons ago — among American-born players. Fifty goals is not out of reach, and Kane may one day break Bobby Hull’s franchise record of 58, set in the1968-69 season. Denis Savard put up the four highest point totals in franchise history and holds the record of 131, set in 1987-88.
Kane recalled the first time he met Matthews at that camp in Florida, and subsequent meetings where the Leaf’s passion for the game grew on him.
“Pretty respectful kid, pretty quiet, but once you get to know him he was really fun to talk to about hockey,” Kane said. “I remember this past year, we took a flight to Tampa from Detroit and I was sitting next to (teammate) Alex DeBrincat, but (Matthews) came up to us and sat down and talked hockey for like two to three hours — certain things in the past, just anything about hockey. He obviously has a certain interest in the game. I think guys like that, who are really interested in the game, really passionate about it, they have a lot of success.
“Then you see him out on the ice, he’s a really hard worker — always working on his shot, working on his skating, never stops working — so he makes you better, too.”
Kane isn’t too old to remember what it was like as a young player.
“I was a big Sabres fan growing up,” said Kane, drafted first overall by Chicago in 2007. “My first home game in Chicago, we were playing Detroit and (hall of famer and former Sabre) Dominik Hasek was the goalie and I ended up scoring in a shootout, so that was a pretty cool moment for me.
“I really like Joe Sakic, got to play against him. I am a big fan of Pavel Datsyuk, watched him a lot in my later teen years. I think when you go up against those guys you are really nervous. You don’t want to get embarrassed, so it’s a great challenge and eye-opening, too.”