Chicago Blackhawks: Patrick Kane is the Team USA captain
The Chicago Blackhawks superstar was given a true honor on Monday afternoon and it is nice to see him be rewarded for his great season.
Jonathan Toews is the captain of the Chicago Blackhawks while Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook support the “A” as alternate captains. The best player on the team, Patrick Kane, doesn’t have a defined leadership role as far as wearing a letter on his sweater but the evidence that he is a leader is there.
It wasn’t apparent earlier in his career as he dealt with some off ice issues but he has really come around. He is a leader with his play especially. He had a season for the ages and USA Hockey is recognizing him for that. He is going to play for our country in the IIHF World Championships Tournament and serve as Team USA’s captain.
He is obsessed with being the best player he can be and that is the type of quality you need in a captain. He led the Blackhawks with 44 goals and 66 assists and of course points with 110. Those 110 points were good for third in the entire National Hockey League only behind Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid. Sometimes your skill forces you to be a leader and we are seeing that happen with Patrick Kane.
He is not only great himself but he makes others around him better. He can be the guy that the puck goes through on a power play and he can make something out of nothing. Outside of that, he will bring experience to a team USA team that might be on the younger side. This isn’t best on best like the Olympics or World Cup of Hockey but there will be some good players on Team USA and all of their opponents. Team USA will announce the rest of its roster later in the week and could leave some empty spaces to see who might become available as the Stanley Cup Playoffs roll along.
Kane has had many stints in the red, white, and blue before in his career. He was the captain of the 2018 World’s team that won the bronze medal, he was an alternate captain for Team USA at the World Cup of Hockey, and played in the Olympics in 2010 and 2014. That 2010 team won the silver medal in an overtime loss. Kane helped set up a game-tying goal with 24 seconds left. The international experience in a leadership role is there.
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Out of all of the options that are available to be the captain of the team there aren’t many better than Patrick Kane. It is really cool to see a guy who plays for Chicago have this kind of success on the national stage. It isn’t guaranteed in any of the sports that a player like this will spend all of his prime playing for your city so take it all in. The tournament begins play on May 10th and goes through the 26th and will take place in Kosice and Bratislava, Slovakia.