{"id":120779,"date":"2025-08-30T11:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T11:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/120779\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T11:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T11:59:12","slug":"patrick-kanes-last-shot-how-the-u-s-hockey-icon-plans-to-play-his-way-onto-one-final-olympic-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/120779\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Kane\u2019s last shot: How the U.S. hockey icon plans to play his way onto one final Olympic team"},"content":{"rendered":"

PLYMOUTH, Mich. \u2014 Patrick Kane laughed hard when told what Mike Modano said earlier that day<\/p>\n

Asked what makes Kane so great, the Hall of Famer had quipped sarcastically, \u201cI thought he was retiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wishful thinking.<\/p>\n

Modano is abundantly aware that Kane is just 32 points from passing him to become the all-time leading American-born scorer in NHL history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think those numbers are something you work hard toward, and you hope that you made it difficult for somebody to come along and chase it down,\u201d said Modano, who finished his career with 1,374 points in 1,499 games. \u201cBut the second I laid eyes on Kane on the ice, I had a feeling he\u2019d be the one to do it. He\u2019s had just an amazing, Hall of Fame career, and he\u2019s deserving of those numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kane, 36, is coming off a 21-goal, 59-point season \u2014 his highest marks since 2021-22 \u2014 giving him 492 goals and 1,343 points in career 1,302 games. He\u2019s hoping this season could be even more special: one where he helps the Detroit Red Wings make the playoffs for the first time in 10 years, passes Modano to stand on the U.S.-scoring mountaintop and makes the Olympic team for what could be his final chance in a best-on-best tournament.<\/p>\n

In November 2007, Modano scored two goals in the first five minutes of a game against the San Jose Sharks to tie and then break Phil Housley\u2019s record of 1,232 points. Less than five months earlier, Kane had been drafted at No. 1 by the Chicago Blackhawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got drafted, they did a little media tour because Modano was about to pass Housley,\u201d Kane recalled in a sitdown with The Athletic at this week\u2019s U.S. Olympic men\u2019s hockey orientation camp. \u201cIt was Housley, Modano, Joey Mullen, and then they were bringing a future American to be part of it. So I got to spend a lot of time with those guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember sitting with Modano and those guys, thinking to myself, \u2018I haven\u2019t even played a game in the NHL. Why am I here with such accomplished players?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Patrick Kane (left) poses with Mike Modano (back), Phil Housley (bottom) and Joey Mullen in 2007. (Jennifer Pottheiser \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Eighteen years later, here Kane is, eight goals from becoming the 49th or 50th 500-goal scorer in NHL history (John Tavares is six away) and about to stand atop all U.S.-born players in points. He\u2019s also 44 assists from passing Housley\u2019s record for U.S. players.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Buffalo, Kane was a Pat LaFontaine fanatic. He idolized Jeremy Roenick and Chris Chelios, who has turned into one of his closest friends. But he especially admired Modano.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty amazing, especially when you look back as a kid, what you wanted to be as a player and just kind of what you went through,\u201d Kane said. \u201cI remember playing hockey just to try and go to college, get a scholarship. I wasn\u2019t selected to the (U.S. National Team Development Program) team right away, and then someone left and I got a call to go there a couple weeks into the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, your game takes off and you\u2019re the first overall pick in the NHL. You always dream of being one of the top players when you\u2019re younger and just competing with these guys. But never in my wildest dreams did I think I could be possibly the leading scorer of every American that ever played.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, Kane was one of 44 players invited by U.S. Olympic men\u2019s hockey general manager Bill Guerin and his staff to Plymouth to be part of the orientation camp. They met up with the new U.S. NTDP Under-17 and -18 teams. They golfed, attended educational seminars to make sure they will be eligible to participate in the Olympics, had photo shoots and met with reporters.<\/p>\n

Kane, who didn\u2019t make the roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this year, wasn\u2019t here to be a charity legacy inclusion or mentor to the younger players. He knows the competition will be furious, but plans to do whatever he can to have a great start this season to convince USA Hockey management to select him for his third Olympics and fourth best-on-best tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cA gold medal is all I\u2019m missing in my career,\u201d said the three-time Stanley Cup champion, former Calder Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy, Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award winner and 2010 Olympic silver medalist.<\/p>\n

Last fall, Guerin, who doubles as the Minnesota Wild GM, flew to Detroit for a scouting trip. But the real reason he went was to meet with Kane after the game to explain to him that he wouldn\u2019t be on the 4 Nations roster. Guerin felt Kane deserved that kind of respect. In December, U.S. 4 Nations and Olympics coach Mike Sullivan also met up with Kane after a Red Wings-Pittsburgh Penguins game.<\/p>\n

Kane wasn\u2019t surprised that he didn\u2019t make the team. He got off to a rough start last season, \u201cand pretty much knew and understood they wouldn\u2019t be taking me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Kane, who had missed the first two months of the 2023-24 season after hip-resurfacing surgery<\/a>, got back to past form as 2024-25 went on and finished the season on a tear, with 16 goals and 45 points in the final 42 games. He went into the offseason feeling he\u2019d have a shot to be chosen for the upcoming Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of good players here obviously \u2014 a lot of guys that are deserving of making it,\u201d Kane said. \u201cI just want to put my best foot forward and have a really good start to the season and kind of put yourself in a position, whether you\u2019re making it or not, to say that I gave myself a chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really do much of that last year. It was just an easy decision to kind of leave me off. So, I definitely want to get off to a good start and get rolling the right way because if I\u2019m on the team, I want it to be for the player I am now, not because of the player I was years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting one more shot would be a dream. He still remembers everything about the 2010 Olympics, including orientation camp, where the 1980 Miracle on Ice team addressed the group. At 2014 orientation camp in Virginia, he remembers players taking in a Nationals game and hearing from motivational speaker David Goggins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had more full schedules back then. This one seems to be a little bit more chill and hanging out a lot together,\u201d Kane said. \u201cLike last night for me, I get to sit next to Charlie McAvoy and talk to him about hockey and his career and how he sees things. He\u2019s such an impressive young man. It\u2019s just cool for me to talk to all these good players.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, I love the game. I don\u2019t want to be a guy that\u2019s a bum out there. I want to be a good player. I want to be one of the top players in the league. That\u2019s why you work so hard in the summer and skate so much. And always working on things, always trying to get better. So coming to a camp like this, you can pick up things from certain guys. Like, obviously I\u2019m not going to talk to Brady Tkachuk and play like him, right? But maybe you could pick up something else, something he does with his stick or something around the goal line in front of the net, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the fun and cool thing about these events.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reality is that, as much as Kane looked up to Modano, LaFontaine, Roenick and Chelios, the players at this orientation camp look up to Kane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played with him at my first world championship, so being on the same team with him was pretty surreal,\u201d Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson said. \u201cJust growing up watching him, I always loved his skill. \u2026 He was such a dynamic player and kind of changed the game. Smaller and so skilled. Slowed the game down. He could do so many different things.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, our styles of hockey are a little different, but he was always someone I used to try to emulate when I was younger and always watched his highlights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Kane doesn\u2019t want to be a legacy pick, he appreciates the position he\u2019s in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess you understand what you\u2019ve been able to accomplish and the success you\u2019ve had,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, maybe guys looked up to you when they were younger, right? And that\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does he have a shot at the team? We\u2019ll see. Guerin\u2019s not about to handicap Kane\u2019s chances or anybody else\u2019s. But looking at the U.S. 4 Nations roster, Kane was hardly the only potential Olympian who wasn\u2019t chosen. Up front alone, other so-called snubs included Thompson, Clayton Keller, Jason Robertson, Matthew Knies and Cole Caufield.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I\u2019m 36, turning 37. Is there another one of these in my future? Who knows. Probably not,\u201d Kane said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about winning gold. I want to get off to a good start. I want to put myself in a position where either way, I did what I had to.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s much to look forward to beyond that for Kane, including a Dec. 31 game against the Winnipeg Jets and his old Blackhawks teammate Jonathan Toews.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to try to get in there on the first faceoff, take the draw against him and beat him,\u201d Kane said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews won three Stanley Cup championships together in Chicago. (Bruce Bennett \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Then, at some point, there\u2019s passing Modano to become the standard for all American-born scorers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like there really hasn\u2019t been that much noise about it,\u201d Kane said. \u201cYou hear about it from people here and there, and you kind of know in the back of your mind. But there really hasn\u2019t been much chatter about it. So, maybe it\u2019ll pick up as you get closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modano, who finished his career playing for the Red Wings, hasn\u2019t heard from the team\u2019s GM, Steve Yzerman, yet, but if he gets the call, he said he\u2019ll clear his schedule and be in attendance when Kane passes him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always been such an easygoing kid and real gracious to me every time we\u2019ve crossed paths,\u201d Modano said. \u201cHe was just good at doing everything really fast. He could skate really well and handle the puck at a fast rate and get shots off fast and just create at a high speed, like (Connor) McDavid, like (Nathan) MacKinnon, (Cale) Makar.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Kane, I think it\u2019s stickhandling. He\u2019s so elusive. You just really couldn\u2019t take a gamble in trying to check him or kind of lunge at him because he would make you look really ridiculous. You played off him and you gave him space, but then that\u2019s a kiss of death, too. Now he\u2019s got time to get his head up and find some other players. It\u2019s kind of a Catch-22. Do you be aggressive or do you play off him? Each were just as deadly for a defender.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, such a good player. If anybody were to pass me, I\u2019m glad it\u2019s Kane. I give him credit. What a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson \/ The Athletic. Photos: Gregory Shamus, Streeter Lecka \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PLYMOUTH, Mich. \u2014 Patrick Kane laughed hard when told what Mike Modano said earlier that day Asked what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1809,4824,4825,1786,4828,385,1082,99],"class_list":["post-120779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-dallas-stars","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-olympics","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}