Patrick Kane Scores 1000th Career Point in Blackhawks Win Over Jets

The Chicago Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane had an assist on a goal scored by Brandon Saad in the Hawks’ 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets at the United Center on January 19th. The announcement of who scored the goal and who assisted drew a huge response from the sellout crowd–for Kane, as it was the 1000th career point for the Buffalo, New York native who is establishing himself as one of the best who has ever played for the Blackhawks.

Kane is the youngest U.S. born player to reach the 1000 point level, at 31 years and 61 days, breaking Jeremy Roenicks’ previous record of 32 years and 13 days. Overall, he’s the 90th player in NHL history to score 1000 points, and fourth to do it for the Blackhawks. The other three are Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull, and Denis Savard. That’s pretty good company; all three of those players are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Kane is in his 13th season in the NHL, all with the Blackhawks. He has 24 goals and 38 assists in 50 games this season. The win was the fifth in a row for the Blackhawks, who moved into a tie for fourth in the Central Division with the Jets (54 points each). After an awful start to the season, Chicago is now closing in on a possible playoff berth with a lot of hockey left to play.

Here’s Kane’s milestone assist. The coolest thing about it is that we were there in section 311 of the United Center, and witnessed it in person. One doesn’t get to see too many such milestones in person; we were present in Toronto when Roger Clemons recorded his 3000th career strikeout in 1998 and that was pretty cool too.