"Everything," Zibanejad said when asked what impresses him about Kane. "I mean, obviously the way he plays with the puck. He can score. He can pass. He's just so calm. I don't know how you get the puck off of him. He's such a threat. … I'm just excited to see him up close and have him on our team to see what he's going to do."
The Rangers' younger forwards, Filip Chytil, 23, Alexis Lafreniere, 21, and Kaapo Kakko, 22, idolized Kane growing up, watching his highlights on YouTube in Kromeriz, Czech Republic, St-Eustache, Quebec, and Turku, Finland.
"When you're a forward scoring goals as a kid growing up, you're always following the players who can score the clutch goals, score the important goals, winning trophies," Chytil said. "I don't know how many times in the playoffs he won a game for the Blackhawks. Every time I woke up in the morning for me that was the first thing I was watching. Unbelievable for me when I was a kid that I could watch that. And now he's part of us. It's great."
It was not lost on Chytil that as he was talking about Kane he was standing in the same dressing room where his newest teammate celebrated his first Stanley Cup championship, after scoring the overtime winner in a clinching Game 6 against the Flyers in 2010.
"If somebody would tell me before I would get to the NHL these names that I would play with, for me that would be unreal," Chytil said.
It will become real Thursday, when Kane arrives, his teammates welcome him and the fans at Madison Square Garden cheer for him.
It should be a special night in a special place. It could be the start of a special run too.
The Rangers (35-17-9), who are third in the Metropolitan Division, six points behind the Devils, are built for it.
"You add the type of players we're talking about, the Tarasenkos and the Kanes, real good hockey players, great name players," Gallant said. "Let's get it done on the ice."