Kane talks being comfortable after trade to Rangers in Q&A with NHL.com

In NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Sitting Down with…" we talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice. Today, we feature New York Rangers forward Patrick Kane.

NEW YORK --Patrick Kane is finding his way on a new team for the first time in his 16-year NHL career.
It hasn't been exactly smooth on the ice, but Kane is getting used to wearing the New York Rangers blue, red and white after starring in the Chicago Blackhawks black, red and white since 2007.
"I would say I'm comfortable," Kane told NHL.com after a brief morning skate at Madison Square Garden last week. "After the first four or five games I felt like I was getting somewhere and now it's like kind of at that place where you're in the mode of you feel you should still try to take over."
The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin April 17. The Rangers, third in the Metropolitan Division, are currently lined up to play the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference First Round.
Kane has five games remaining to get himself ready; he has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in 16 games since the Rangers acquired him from the Blackhawks in a three-team trade that also included the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 28.

"I know they've had a lot of success here, so I'm viewing these 21 games to just get myself settled in, figure out the way I need to do things, figure out the way I need to play and then make sure everything is dialed once the playoffs start," Kane said.
NHL.com continued the conversation with Kane and touched on his desire to win the Stanly Cup again, settling in off the ice in New York and getting used to the travel in the Eastern Conference.
This is going to sound like a weird question and I think I know the answer but I'm still curious to hear your thoughts on it. How badly do you want to win? I ask that because it happened in 2015 and it went steadily down in Chicago to where the Blackhawks are now. How badly do you want this now?
"Oh yeah, I know. It's almost like two portions of your career, right? You come up, you're young and you have so much success to start and then all of a sudden the last six or seven years we were just fighting it and trying to find a way just to get back into the playoffs. So now this is a great opportunity, a great chance to come into a new team and just to get that winning feeling again would be amazing. Even here in the regular season, it's just such a breath of fresh air from grinding every day to just win a game to get that good feeling. It's something I'm not taking for granted."
Does winning here now feel like it is expected whereas before you left Chicago it almost felt like winning should be celebrated?
"Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I mean, you win games here with the Rangers and you can tell even though you won, maybe we didn't play as well as we could have or should have and people are [angry] about that. We used to have that feeling in Chicago too. We'd come in and we'd be up 2-0 and everyone would feel like we played brutal and we'd all be [angry]. Now it's a similar vibe in here. We beat Carolina and guys are just like we won, great, but we should have played a lot better. It's good to have that feeling too."
Off the ice, are you feeling settled?
"Definitely. It's little things like having a place to live, knowing how to get to and from the practice rink, what's to be expected on a team plane or how they do things at the hotels, the meetings. It's all things like that. You get into a routine for 16 years with things you're so used to, so accustomed to that you don't really have to think about it. Then you come here and all of a sudden you have to think about it, like how you're going to do your pregame warmup or where you're doing it, or what's you're going to need from the trainers. It's all things like that. They may not seem like meaningful things but they're things you have to dial in to have a routine."
How different is it on the road with the Rangers vs. being on the road with the Blackhawks, meaning on the team plane, in the meetings?
"It's not drastically different. I think everyone is pretty similar. We were really spoiled in Chicago and they do everything first class here, too, where you're staying in the nicest hotels and their plane here is pretty special. The seats and the comfort, the food they have, it's top notch here, too. But meetings are pretty similar. Usually you'll have your PP, PK and 5-on-5 meetings. That was similar to what we did in Chicago, too."
The difference is you can play a road game here and just get on a bus or a train. You may play a first-round playoff series without having to get on a plane or even a train if its Devils-Rangers. How do you feel about that?
"I know. I know. Right before I came they had their western trip, but ever since I've been here the travel is just crazy. I was used to two-hour flights. I mean, like everywhere is a two-hour flight from Chicago. And here it's like 45 minutes or less. You almost want it to be longer. [Artemi] Panarin and I are playing backgammon on the plane now, that's what we do, so you almost wish it was a little longer so we could get a couple more games in. But, no, seriously it's nice for travel purposes."
OK, last one and this is off the wall too, but I notice you wear the ear guards, obvious protection for your ears. I don't see anyone else on the Rangers wearing them. Very few players wear them. I noticed in Pittsburgh it's Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin wearing them, and no one else. So why do you wear them?
"When I came into the League I was a smaller guy and the game was pretty physical back then. Actually, John Scott hit me. He was playing on Minnesota and he hit me in the preseason and kind of got my ear, so they were like, 'We're just going to throw the ear guards on.' They put them on and I never took them off. Crosby wears them. Malkin, too. I think it probably has to do with the time we came into the League and what the game was like back then. I actually had mine out, took that hit and they put them back in and just kept them in. I feel like some guys don't like it for style purposes. It looks a little silly. But it's probably worth it if it protects your ears."