Patrick Kane emerged from the locker room sporting a white-and-red jersey – aka, the no-contact jersey – on Wednesday morning.
It was somewhat of a surprise to see Kane, who underwent surgery for his fractured left clavicle five weeks ago today, and the right wing looked good in his skating and shooting. Still, he and coach Joel Quenneville were cautioning everyone that Kane is not ready – yet.
“He’s skating well. He’s doing what he can do. But there’s still a process that has to be followed there,” Quenneville said. “He’s a ways away.”
Kane concurred.
“It’s nice to be out there with the team today and skate with them and hopefully sooner rather than later I can do different things like contact and stuff like that,” Kane said. “But I still think the timetable is the same and I’ll just take it day by day and see what we can make of it.”
Kane took a variety of shots as he continues to heal from his fractured clavicle. It seems like Kane would be back sooner than later – the original diagnosis was 12 weeks from the day of his surgery, which would leave another seven weeks. But Kane, who said he still cannot take one-timers or slap shots, wasn’t shaving any time off that prognosis.
“I guess you have to wait a little while for it to heal and for the bone to become itself again. I think it’s frustrating, but it is what it is,” Kane said. “Like I said before and like I’ve been saying all along to everyone I’ve been talking to, it’s something you’ve got to stay patient with and make sure you’re not really rushing an injury like this because it doesn’t make any sense to do that. You just put yourself back at square one.”
Oh, and keep in mind, Kane cannot come back in the regular season, anyway. He’s currently on long-term injured reserve and the Blackhawks wouldn’t have the cap space to take him off it. Once the playoffs begin however, the salary cap doesn’t count. Even if the numbers weren’t an issue it would seem silly to bring Kane back down the regular-season stretch. The Blackhawks kept him out for precautionary reasons late last regular season when he suffered a knee injury.
Still, teammates were happy to have Kane back among them on Wednesday.
“I mean, he makes it look so easy being off that amount of time and coming out there and doing the same thing he always does,” Andrew Shaw said. “He looks like he didn’t miss a step. That’s why he’s the player he is. He can step it up and we’re excited to have him in the dressing room and on the ice with us.”
Kane looked good in his first day back with his teammates; the skating and shooting he did on his own prior to this certainly helped. Kane would love to be back as soon as possible but, as he said, rushing back is not worth the risk.
“The most important thing for me is, especially when I’m skating with the team and when I get a chance to step into the drills, is [to] get my timing back as best as I can,” Kane said. “And make sure that when they do clear me to play and I’m ready to play a game that I’m as ready as possible.”
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