Confidence, and calls from dad: How Hurricanes rookie Jackson Blake is adjusting to the NHL
For any NHL rookie, the initiation into the league is as much about moments, as it is about the games.
It’s about looking across the ice to see Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid, or witnessing an Alex Ovechkin one-timer in real time.
It’s about scoring a first goal, screaming for joy, slapping gloves at the bench and having your head coach pat you on the back. It’s also about taking a stick in the mouth or a hard check in front of the net that rattles the helmet and makes you realize you’re not in North Dakota anymore.
So it has been for rookie forward Jackson Blake of the Carolina Hurricanes.
And more.
It’s about having your father, a former NHL forward, FaceTime you when he never FaceTimes you, to say to move out the hotel and find new housing in Raleigh, that he’d be sticking with the big team.
Or getting another call from Dad saying, yes, he’d played well but, you know, he missed out on a backcheck.
What one word would best describe Blake’s rookie season?
“Surreal,” Blake said without hesitation.
‘I’m not complaining’
A year ago, Blake was in his sophomore season at the University of North Dakota, in Grand Forks, 1,500 miles or so from the Triangle. His overtime goal won an early November game at Boston University, then No. 8 nationally — a big moment for Blake and the UND Fighting Hawks.
“We’d play Fridays and Saturdays and always had Sundays off to watch football and stuff,” Blake said of his college schedule and weekly routine.
A year later, Blake is in the NHL, where Sunday can be a game day and will this week, against St. Louis. It’s about playing an 82-game regular season, not 40 games. It’s about having 12-day road trips for the first time. About living on your own.
It’s about being 21 and playing against men every time out.
“I’m not complaining,” Blake said. “To get to wear the jersey and play in the NHL with these guys … Yes, it’s a lot, but it’s a lot of fun, too.”
‘One of the coolest moments ever’
In his first 15 games, Blake has four goals and two assists, with a plus-3 plus/minus rating. His first NHL goal, in a Canes win against New Jersey on Oct. 15, came on a tip in front of the crease and happened so quickly Blake later said he “blacked out” after the goal.
In the Canes’ 4-1 loss Wednesday at Utah, Blake and winger Andrei Svechnikov each had a game-high seven shots. Blake, seemingly as fresh and active as anyone in the Carolina lineup, had almost 18 minutes in playing time, about 10 of it on the power play.
“He has been good and been consistent,” Svechnikov said. “The thing I like about his play is his shiftiness. He’s very shifty and you never know which way he’s going to go. He’s very quick, too.”
Blake also has impressed his teammates and coaches with grit and hockey savvy. Listed at 5-10 and 180 pounds, he seems to play bigger than his size.
That’s what Blake showed in preseason training camp — that he was ready for the NHL. It’s a part of what separated him from other young forwards like Felix Unger Sorum, Blake Nadeau and former first-round pick Ryan Suzuki. When camp ended, Blake was on the NHL roster and the others were sent to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.
Before long, Jason Blake was calling his son to say he had talked to Canes general manager Eric Tulsky and that Jackson was staying with the Hurricanes. The Canes posted the video of the FaceTime call online and it went viral.
“One of the coolest moments ever,” Jackson Blake said.
‘He’s always there for me’
Not that it was rare for Jason Blake to make a call. According to Jackson, his dad continues to critique almost every shift in every game and can be tough about it, with no holding back.
“But he’s been like that forever,” Blake said, smiling. “He likes to nitpick everything. Even when I was growing up and I’d score four goals in a game, he’d find something.
“But I expect it and I like it, too. He’s trying to help and it’s all love. He’s always there for me,”
Jason Blake played 871 career NHL games with four teams and had a career-best 42-goal season with the New York Islanders in 2006-07. The 5-10, 190-pound forward at times was on the ice with Brind’Amour, the captain of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup champs.
Not that father and son play a similar game, Brind’Amour said.
“They’re both high-skill kind of guys but I think Jackson’s got another notch on the skill level than his dad had,” Brind’Amour said. “His dad was a good player, for sure, but all the kids now, they seem to be getting better and better with their skills.”
Jackson Blake, a right-hand shot, was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award last season at North Dakota. Often called the Heisman Trophy of college hockey, it was won by Macklin Celebrini of Boston University.
Both Blake and Celebrini now are in the NHL — Celebrini taken first overall in the 2024 NHL draft by the San Jose Sharks — although Celebrini, 18, has been sidelined part of his rookie season by an injury.
For Blake, No. 53 in the Canes’ lineup, it’s now 15 games and counting.
“He’s pretty confident and believes in his ability,” said Jack Drury, who has centered Blake’s line. “Each game, he seems to get more and more comfortable.”
