FEATURE: Kane & Roenick share admiration for each other

When it comes to hockey highlights, even Patrick Kane isn't above the occasional YouTube dive. But as Kane explained during a 2018 Blackhawks Convention panel with Jeremy Roenick, searching for videos of Roenick's hockey skills can be tricky.
"I was watching some YouTube videos of JR the other day," Kane said. "I was trying to look up 'Jeremy Roenick highlights' and all I could find was…"
"Dancing videos," said Roenick, laughing.

"So I watched about ten minutes of JR dancing and couldn't turn off the computer," Kane said. "And then I finally got to the goals."
513 goals, to be exact, and 267 of those coming in a Blackhawks sweater. With such impressive scoring numbers, Roenick earned the right to dance a little on the ice. But it was those goals, and the man who scored them, that first caught the attention of a nine-year-old kid from Buffalo who wanted to become a pro hockey player.
"When I was a kid, I used to go up to my dad's dealership. I would put all my hockey equipment on, my skate guards; my dad would take me to the practice," Kane said. "One of his salesmen said he, supposedly, played hockey with Jeremy Roenick in Boston growing up. I thought that was the coolest thing."

Roenick's career with the Blackhawks began before Kane was even born. Chosen with the eighth pick in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, Roenick joined the Blackhawks as a teenager - just a few months removed from playing high school hockey in Boston.
By the time Kane was beginning to emerge as an NHL prospect in his own right, Roenick was a nine-time All-Star who led the Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1992.
"This guy had 500 goals, 1200 points and should be in the Hall of Fame," Kane said. "And he represents not only the NHL but USA Hockey better than anyone."
As two of the greatest players to wear a Chicago sweater, Kane and Roenick are linked by more than just their scoring prowess. But until the 2018 Blackhawks Convention, their admiration for each other was not as well known.
"Not too many guys in the league have the ability to score goals in all different ways like Patrick does and he shows it nightly," Roenick said. "It's very hard to score from way out, you have to get into those high traffic areas…. unless you're Patrick Kane and make everybody look stupid by skating and stickhandling through them."

Roenick said that Kane also brings a mental edge to the ice and an ability to find space in the offensive zone.
"I look at Patrick and the way that he plays the game. The one thing about scoring goals, you have to have that real sense in your mind, that hockey IQ," Roenick said. "Patrick has his favorite spots to shoot and he knows where the spots are going to be open no matter who's in goal."
Kane and Roenick were both inside the Wachovia Center on June 9, 2010, for Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, when Kane scored the biggest goal in Blackhawks history.
Kane's heroics that night have become the stuff of legend, but Roenick was also there as a studio analyst for NBC Sports. After Kane's overtime winner, Roenick held back tears in the booth.

"When you bleed and sweat and give everything for that jersey, you fail to win for your city and you fail to win for your team, and you see that Cup go over that crest, it hit me like a ton of bricks," Roenick said. "The feelings that were going through me when I saw the best logo in sports raise that Cup, it was something."
When host Dan Patrick asked him about his emotional reaction, Roenick's answer was simple:
"It's the Chicago Blackhawks, man."