Boos turn to cheers for rival Patrick Kane at All-Star Game in St. Louis
Patrick Kane #88 of the Chicago Blackhawks and Eric Staal #12 of the Minnesota Wild celebrate in the game between Pacific Division and Central Division during the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Game at Enterprise Center on January 25, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
ST. LOUIS — It was the All-Star Game in a nutshell. A player scores for the hometown Central Division. The crowd at Enterprise Center cheers. And then they realize whom they are cheering for.
“I tried to put my hand up to my ear to kind of like hear the boos,” Patrick Kane said, grinning. “But then I was showing them, ‘Hey, come on! I’m playing with Blues players! I’ve got the same jersey as them!’ ”
The tough crowd booed their Blackhawks rival pretty much every chance they got: when his name was mentioned, when he stepped on the ice, when he won Friday’s Shooting Stars Challenge and when he scored in the Central’s 10-5 loss to the Pacific Division.
Well, eventually, that is. The cheers came. The boos came. Kane shot up his hand in the universal gesture of “let me hear more,” and even the Blues’ social media team got in on the act.
“Did we just cheer for Patrick Kane?” the verified Twitter account asked. The responses were what one would expect.
The Pacific Division eventually defeated the Atlantic, 5-4, in the final in the quest for bragging rights. The Bruins’ David Pastrnak was named MVP.
As for Kane, he made no secret of the fact that he thinks the boos are a sign of respect. “It’s all in good fun,” he said. “Honestly, sometimes, you get booed, you kind of like it a little bit.”
Well, the good people of St. Louis must respect Kane a whole lot, then.
Notes & quotes: For Saturday’s game, the NHL instituted the puck and player tracking that it plans to use for this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. The technology will be integrated into the rest of the league next year, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. During Saturday’s telecast, the puck was tracked by a red, tailing streak . . . Celebrity Blues fans Jon Hamm and Jenna Fischer served as honorary coaches, alongside Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull. Gretzky told NHL.com on Friday that he is rooting for Alex Ovechkin to break his goal record. He’s 202 goals behind Gretzky. “I’m a big believer that records are meant to be broken,” Gretzky said. “There’s no question in my mind that he has a real legitimate chance of doing it.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
